Sample records for planning define attentional

aims to define restandardisation as democratising language planning, i.e. a .... disintegration of the Soviet Union of Yugoslavia, the opening of borders in Europe, and the ..... descriptive framework for standardisation as a language planning process. .... belonging to the same language group in order to form one common ...

Our central goal is to provide a definition of boredom in terms of the underlying mental processes that occur during an instance of boredom. Through the synthesis of psychodynamic, existential, arousal, and cognitive theories of boredom, we argue that boredom is universally conceptualized as "the aversive experience of wanting, but being unable, to engage in satisfying activity." We propose to map this conceptualization onto underlying mental processes. Specifically, we propose that boredom be defined in terms of attention. That is, boredom is the aversive state that occurs when we (a) are not able to successfully engage attention with internal (e.g., thoughts or feelings) or external (e.g., environmental stimuli) information required for participating in satisfying activity, (b) are focused on the fact that we are not able to engage attention and participate in satisfying activity, and (c) attribute the cause of our aversive state to the environment. We believe that our definition of boredom fully accounts for the phenomenal experience of boredom, brings existing theories of boredom into dialogue with one another, and suggests specific directions for future research on boredom and attention.

This manuscript presents two experiments designed to explore the effects of attention on perceived exertion and time to failure in a fatiguing athletic task. There were two major motivating factors for these experiments. First, there are few studies evaluating attentional focus effects in endurance tasks and, second, there is a lack of integration between studies of attentional focus as external/internal (e.g., Wulf, 2007a) compared to associative/dissociative (e.g., Stevinson and Biddle, 1998). In Experiment 1, we used a fatiguing wall-sit posture (essentially a complex, isometric task) to compare two different types of external attention with an internal focus on the position of the legs. An external focus (regardless of type) increased the time taken to failure and reduced perceived exertion. In Experiment 2, we manipulated subjects' expectancy of fatigue to test the interaction of attention and expectancy (both top-down factors) in this highly fatiguing task. Previous theories of attention during endurance tasks have suggested that as fatigue/pain increase, bottom-up factors begin to dominate subjects' attention. While this may be true, Experiment 2 showed that even in a highly fatiguing task, attentional strategies, and expectancies affected the time to failure and perceived exertion.

Full Text Available This manuscript presents two experiments designed to explore the effects of attention on perceived exertion and time to failure in a fatiguing athletic task. There were two major motivating factors for these experiments. First, there are few studies evaluating attentional focus effects in endurance tasks and, second, there is a lack of integration between studies of attentional focus as external/internal (e.g., Wulf, 2007 compared to associative/dissociative (e.g., Stevenson & Biddle, 1998. In Experiment 1, we used a fatiguing wall-sit posture (essentially a complex, isometric task to compare two different types of external attention with an internal focus on the position of the legs. An external focus (regardless of type increased the time taken to failure and reduced perceived exertion. In Experiment 2, we manipulated subjects’ expectancy of fatigue to test the interaction of attention and expectancy (both top-down factors in this highly fatiguing task. Previous theories of attention during endurance tasks have suggested that as fatigue/pain increase, bottom-up factors begin to dominate subjects’ attention. While this may be true, Experiment 2 showed that even in a highly fatiguing task, attentional strategies and expectancies affected the time to failure and perceived exertion.

Attention and language are among the most intensively researched abilities in the cognitive neurosciences, but the relation between these abilities has largely been neglected. There is increasing evidence, however, that linguistic processes, such as those underlying the planning of words, cannot proceed without paying some form of attention. Here, we review evidence that word planning requires some but not full attention. The evidence comes from chronometric studies of word planning in picture naming and word reading under divided attention conditions. It is generally assumed that the central attention demands of a process are indexed by the extent that the process delays the performance of a concurrent unrelated task. The studies measured the speed and accuracy of linguistic and non-linguistic responding as well as eye gaze durations reflecting the allocation of attention. First, empirical evidence indicates that in several task situations, processes up to and including phonological encoding in word planning delay, or are delayed by, the performance of concurrent unrelated non-linguistic tasks. These findings suggest that word planning requires central attention. Second, empirical evidence indicates that conflicts in word planning may be resolved while concurrently performing an unrelated non-linguistic task, making a task decision, or making a go/no-go decision. These findings suggest that word planning does not require full central attention. We outline a computationally implemented theory of attention and word planning, and describe at various points the outcomes of computer simulations that demonstrate the utility of the theory in accounting for the key findings. Finally, we indicate how attention deficits may contribute to impaired language performance, such as in individuals with specific language impairment.

Full Text Available The paper focuses on the actuarial models of defined contribution pension plan. Through assumptions and calculations, the expected replacement ratios of three different defined contribution pension plans are compared. Specially, more significant considerable factors are put forward in the further cost and risk analyses. In order to get an assessment of current status, the paper finds a relationship between the replacement ratio and the pension investment rate using econometrics method. Based on an appropriate investment rate of 6%, an expected replacement ratio of 20% is reached.

The paper provides some guidelines to individuals with defined contribution (DC) pension plans on how to manage pension savings both before and after retirement. We argue that decisions regarding investment, annuity payments, and the size of death sum should not only depend on the individual’s age...... characterizing the individual. The problem is solved via a model that combines two optimization approaches: stochastic optimal control and multi-stage stochastic programming. The first method is common in financial and actuarial literature, but produces theoretical results. However, the latter, which...

Previous research suggested that perception of spatial location is biased towards spatial goals of planned hand movements. In the present study I show that an analogous perceptual distortion can be observed if attention is paid to a spatial location in the absence of planning a hand movement. Participants judged the position of a target during preparation of a mouse movement, the end point of which could deviate from the target by a varying degree in Exp. 1. Judgments of target position were systematically affected by movement characteristics consistent with perceptual assimilation between the target and the planned movement goal. This effect was neither due to an impact of motor execution on judgments (Exp. 2) nor due to characteristics of the movement cues or of certain target positions (Exp. 3, Exp. 5A). When the task included deployment of attention to spatial positions (former movement goals) in preparation for a secondary perceptual task, an effect emerged that was comparable with the bias associated with movement planning (Exp. 4, Exp. 5B). These results indicate that visual distortions accompanying manipulations of variables related to action could be mediated by attentional mechanisms.

... liabilities or assets for the year, as well as a projection to the end of such plan year of the effect of the... difficult to find meaning in the phrase ``a projection to the end of such year'' if ``current plan year'' is... service; an offer by the plan for a temporary period to permit participants to retire at benefit...

Full Text Available This article is devoted to the moving from PAYG Pensions to Defined-Contribution Plan. The special aspects of this reorganization are analyzed. Pen-sion models of OECD countries are compared. Inability of the Defined-Contribution Plan in Russia is being proved. The present paper provides modern ways to improve the Defined-Contribution pension schemes.

Skybeams and light projections have been a long standing problem, not just because of possible light pollution, ecological and public safety issues, but also because there was confusion as to when planning permission was required. Under some circumstances a light beam could be used for 28 days without needing permission, whilst other users such as circuses would always need planning permission. The celebrated Guildford case saw a skybeam classified as an advert, and so needing planning permission (after lobbying by the Campaign for Dark Skies with local support), but this was not binding on later cases. So there was a lack of firm national guidance, or a court judgment clarifying the issue. However, the situation is now much clearer due to the new Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) (England) Regulations 2007.

Since 2002, public school teachers in Florida have been permitted to choose between a defined benefit (DB) and a defined contribution (DC) retirement plan. We exploit this unique policy environment to study new teachers' revealed preferences over pension plan structures. Roughly 30 percent of teachers hired between 2003 and 2008 selected the DC…

The present study investigated how trait anxiety alters the balance between attentional control systems to impact performance of a discrete preplanned goal-directed motor task. Participants executed targeted force contractions (engaging the goal-directed attentional system) at the offset of emotional and non-emotional distractors (engaging the stimulus-driven attentional system). High and low anxious participants completed the protocol at two target force levels (10% and 35% of maximum voluntary contraction). Reaction time (RT), performance accuracy, and rate of change of force were calculated. Expectations were confirmed at the 10% but not the 35% target force level: (1) high anxiety was associated with slower RTs, and (2) threat cues lead to faster RTs independently of trait anxiety. These new findings suggest that motor efficiency, but not motor effectiveness is compromised in high relative to low anxious individuals. We conclude that increased stimulus-driven attentional control interferes with movements that require greater attentional resources.

The current study was carried out to investigate the nature and causes of attentional impairments in patients with Parkinson's Disease (PD). Two experimental tasks were carried out (the Odd-Man-Out and an adaptation of the Strooptest) in a group of 15 PD patients and 15 healthy elderly controls. The

... eliminating or reducing accrued benefits, early retirement benefits, retirement-type subsidies, and optional... plan amendment that has the effect of eliminating or reducing an early retirement benefit or a...: (1) Benefits described in section 411(d)(6)(A); (2) early retirement benefits (as defined in Sec....

All organizations are means to societal ends, and thus Mega thinking and planning starts with a primary focus on adding value for all stakeholders, including our shared society. It is pragmatic, realistic, practical, and ethical. Defining and achieving continual organizational success is possible. It relies on three basic elements: (1) a societal…

All organizations are means to societal ends, and thus Mega thinking and planning starts with a primary focus on adding value for all stakeholders, including our shared society. It is pragmatic, realistic, practical, and ethical. Defining and achieving continual organizational success is possible. It relies on three basic elements: (1) a societal…

This work plan addresses the methodology for defining a tank waste database that will provide a best basis estimate of waste characteristics for each underground storage tank. The resulting database is expected to be in place in a network accessible electronic form by September 1996.

A methodology is described for defining and representing satellite events from the IEPS perspective. The task of doing this is divided into four categories and includes defining and representing resource windows, event parameters, event scheduling strategies, and event constraints. The description of each of these categories includes examples from the IEPS ERBS-TDRSS Contact Planning System. This is a system which is being used by the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) schedulers to request TDRSS contact times from the NCC. The system is written in the C programming language and uses a custom built inference engine (TIE1) to do constraint checking and a custom built strategies interpreter to derive the plan. The planning system runs on the IBM-PC/AT or on any similar hardware which has a C development environment and 640K of memory.

Health promotion and prevention activities should tackle health inequalities to reduce disparities in health among disadvantaged populations. This study aimed to assess the extent to which the Italian Regions considered health inequalities during the planning of prevention activities, to detect geographical differences and to identify the possible determinants of differences in attention to health inequalities. The 19 Regional Prevention Plans (RPPs) developed by Italian Regions within the National Prevention Plan (NPP) 2010-2013 were assessed using a specific tool to address the level of attention to health inequalities. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify regional characteristics associated with a higher level of attention to health inequalities. Of the 702 projects included in the 19 RPPs, only 56 (8.0 %) specifically addressed issues related to health inequalities. The results of the multivariate analysis showed that a higher level of attention was associated with the macroarea of intervention 'prevention in high-risk groups', with the higher quality of the Strategic Plan Section of the RPP and with the higher percentage of migrants in the Region in 2010. Moreover, projects that addressed the topic of health inequalities were more likely to be developed in the Northern Regions, in Regions with a lower level of 'linking social capital' and with a Higher Regional Health Care Expenditure (RHCE) as a percentage of Regional Gross Domestic Product (RGDP) in 2010. The level of attention to health inequalities in the regional planning process of prevention activities 2010-2013 in Italy is low. The results of this study supported the new round of prevention planning in Italy, and highlight the urgent need to increase the number of policies and interventions able to reduce health inequalities.

The purpose of this article is to provide the reader with insight into the clinical reasoning involved in the assessment and intervention planning for a child with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. The reader will be guided through the authors' conceptualization of this case, and suggestions for intervention in the classroom will be…

The purpose of this article is to provide the reader with insight into the clinical reasoning involved in the assessment and intervention planning for a child with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. The reader will be guided through the authors' conceptualization of this case, and suggestions for intervention in the classroom will be…

Controversy exists about whether dual-task interference from word planning reflects structural bottleneck or attentional control factors. Here, participants named pictures whose names could or could not be phonologically prepared. and they manually responded to arrows presented away from (Experiment

Controversy exists about whether dual-task interference from word planning reflects structural bottleneck or attentional control factors. Here, participants named pictures whose names could or could not be phonologically prepared. and they manually responded to arrows presented away from (Experiment

Full Text Available This paper presents a semi-analytical trajectory planning method for quadrotor UAVs. These trajectories are analytically defined, are constant in speed and sub-optimal with respect to a weighted quadratic cost function of the translational and angular velocities. A technique for concatenating the trajectories into multi-segment paths is demonstrated. These paths are smooth to the first derivative of the translational position and pass through defined waypoints. A method for detecting potential collisions by discretizing the path into a coarse mesh before using a numerical optimiser to determine the point of the path closest to the obstacle is presented. This hybrid method reduces the computation time when compared to discretizing the trajectory into a fine mesh and calculating the minimum distance. A tracking controller is defined and used to show that the paths are dynamically feasible and the typical magnitudes of the controller inputs required to fly them.

The nature of deficits in tests of sustained attention, planning and attentional set-shifting has not been investigated in neuroleptic-naïve first-episode (FE) schizophrenia patients. Based on previous literature of chronic and medicated FE schizophrenia patients, we predicted that the neuroleptic-naïve patients would show deficits in these cognitive processes. Twenty-nine neuroleptic-naïve FE schizophrenia patients and 33 healthy controls - matched by age, gender, and nicotine consumption - performed 3 tests from the Cambridge Automated Neuropsychological Test Battery (CANTAB) thought to measure these cognitive processes: the Rapid Visual Information Processing task (RVIP, sustained attention), the Stockings of Cambridge task (SOC, planning), and the Intradimensional/Extradimensional set-shifting task (IDED, attention shifting). The patients were significantly impaired in the sensitivity index (A') of the RVIP, and in the number of problems solved with minimum moves on the SOC. Nevertheless, the groups did not differ regarding the number of participants who failed at the crucial extradimensional shift stage of the IDED. Sustained attention and planning abilities are already impaired in neuroleptic-naïve FE schizophrenia patients, whereas set-shifting abilities as measured with the IDED task seem to be intact at illness onset. Since chronic schizophrenia patients have been shown to have impaired IDED performance, we tentatively propose that IDED performance deteriorates over time with illness chronicity and/or medication.

Purpose In the US, many individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) pay for their medications using private health insurance coverage. As in other drug classes, private insurers are actively seeking to influence utilization and costs, particularly for newer and costlier medications. The approaches that insurers use may have important effects on patients’ access to medications. This paper examines approaches (e.g., copayments, prior authorization, and step therapy) that commercial health plans are employing to manage newer medications used to treat ADHD and changes in approaches since 2003. Methods Data are from a nationally representative survey of commercial health plans in 60 market areas regarding alcohol, drug abuse and mental health services in 2010. Responses were obtained from 389 plans (89% response rate), reporting on 925 insurance products. For each of six branded ADHD medications, respondents were asked whether the plan covered the medication and if so, on what copayment tier each medication was placed, and whether it was subject to prior authorization or step therapy. Measures of management approach were constructed for each medication and for the group of medications. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to test for association of the management approach with various health plan characteristics. Findings There was considerable variation across these 6 medications in how tightly they were managed by health plans, with newer medications being subject to more stringent management. The proportion of insurance products relying solely on copay tiering to manage novel ADHD medications appears to have decreased since 2003. Less than half of insurance products (43%) managed these 6 medications solely by use of Tier 3/4 placement, and most of the remainder (48%) used other restrictions (with or without Tier 3/4 placement). The average insurance product restricted access to at least 3 of the 6 brand-only medications examined

Full Text Available The article discusses actions that defined as criminal according to tax authorities and the relation between them and illegitimate tax planning, including details of the legitimate activities permitted by law and that are not deemed as illegal. An emphasis was given to the rate of tax evasions in compared to other states around the world and the way the states of Israel and Moldova treats the phenomenon of non-legitimized tax planning, in contrast to actions taken by states around the world to eradicate this phenomenon.The findings of this article prove initially that this phenomenon is worldwide, and that any state has really found a magic solution for this issue. However, there are number of measures that can significantly reduce the phenomenon, and this is by prohibiting the execution of transactions in large amounts of cash.Planificarea fiscală ilegală prin acţiuni care sunt recunoscute criminale în conformitate cu legislaţia fiscalăSunt puse în discuţie acţiuni care pot fi abordate de către autorităţile fiscale ca infracţiuni sub aspectul planificării fiscale ilegale, în timp ce detalizarea acestor acţiuni permite efectuarea lor în conformitate cu legea şi neconsiderarea acestora ca fiind ilegale. Un accent este pus pe problema privind evaziunea fiscală în aspect comparat cu alte state şi pe modul în care în Israel şi în Moldova este tratat fenomenul planificării fiscale ilegale. Sunt specificate acţiunile întreprinse de către statele lumii pentru eradicarea acestui fenomen. Constatările autorilor demonstrează că acest fenomen are loc la nivel mondial şi că niciun stat nu a găsit soluţie magică pentru această problemă. Cu toate acestea, mai multe măsuri de reducere semnificativă a fenomenului au fost elucidate, printre care iniţierea raportărilor denotă o reducere semnificativă a opţiunii de a efectua plăţi cu sume mari de bani în numerar.

Full Text Available William B Brinkman, Jeffery N EpsteinDepartment of Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USABackground: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD is a common condition that often results in child and family functional impairments. Although there are evidence-based treatment modalities available, implementation of and persistence with treatment plans vary with patients. Family preferences also vary and may contribute to variability in treatment utilization.Objective: The objective of this study is to describe the evidence-based treatments available for ADHD, identify patterns of use for each modality, and examine patient and parent treatment preferences.Method: Literature review.Results: Treatment options differ on benefits and risks/costs. Therefore, treatment decisions are preference sensitive and depend on how an informed patient/parent values the tradeoffs between options. Literature on patient and parent ADHD treatment preferences is based on quantitative research assessing the construct of treatment acceptability and qualitative and quantitative research that assesses preferences from a broader perspective. After a child is diagnosed with ADHD, a variety of factors influence the initial selection of treatment modalities that are utilized. Initial parent and child preferences are shaped by their beliefs about the nature of the child's problems and by information (and misinformation received from a variety of sources, including social networks, the media, and health care providers. Subsequently, preferences become further informed by personal experience with various treatment modalities. Over time, treatment plans are revisited and revised as families work with their health care team to establish a treatment plan that helps their child achieve goals while minimizing harms and costs.Conclusions: Studies have not been able to determine the extent to which

The rise of 401(k) plans and the decline of defined benefit plans will have an important effect on the wealth of future retirees. Changing demographic structure also will affect the aggregate stock of retirement wealth. We project the stock of assets held in retirement plans and the average retirement saving of retirees through 2040. Our projections show large increases in wealth at retirement, especially if the returns on corporate equities are comparable with historical returns. Retirement wealth will grow, however, even if equity returns fall substantially below their historical level.

When children have marked problems with motor coordination, they often have problems with attention and impulse control. Here, we map the neuroanatomic substrate of motor coordination in childhood and ask whether this substrate differs in the presence of concurrent symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Participants were 226 children. All completed Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5)-based assessment of ADHD symptoms and standardized tests of motor coordination skills assessing aiming/catching, manual dexterity and balance. Symptoms of developmental coordination disorder (DCD) were determined using parental questionnaires. Using 3 Tesla magnetic resonance data, four latent neuroanatomic variables (for the cerebral cortex, cerebellum, basal ganglia and thalamus) were extracted and mapped onto each motor coordination skill using partial least squares pathway modeling. The motor coordination skill of aiming/catching was significantly linked to latent variables for both the cerebral cortex (t = 4.31, p motor cortical regions and the superior cerebellar lobules. These links were not moderated by the severity of symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. In categorical analyses, the DCD group showed atypical reduction in the volumes of these regions. However, the group with DCD alone did not differ significantly from those with DCD and co-morbid ADHD. The superior cerebellar lobules and the premotor/motor cortex emerged as pivotal neural substrates of motor coordination in children. The dimensions of these motor coordination regions did not differ significantly between those who had DCD, with or without co-morbid ADHD.

There are many factors that can influence whether a highly talented staff member will build a career within an institution or use it as a stepping stone. This article defines and explores the notions of developing career paths and succession planning and why they are critical human capital investment strategies in retaining the highest performers…

There are many factors that can influence whether a highly talented staff member will build a career within an institution or use it as a stepping stone. This article defines and explores the notions of developing career paths and succession planning and why they are critical human capital investment strategies in retaining the highest performers…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the degree with which Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and 504 Plans prepared for middle school students with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) conformed to best practices and included evidence-based services. Specifically, we examined the problem areas identified in the statement of…

Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity-Disorders (ADHD) and Autistic-Spectrum-Disorders (ASD) share overlapping clinical and cognitive features that may confuse the diagnosis. Evaluation of executive problems and planning dysfunction may aid the clinical diagnostic process and help disentangle the neurobiological process underlying these conditions. This…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the degree with which Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and 504 Plans prepared for middle school students with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) conformed to best practices and included evidence-based services. Specifically, we examined the problem areas identified in the statement of…

Full Text Available Employees, who are working for entities, expect to derive various benefits in the future in exchange for service they render to the entities. Obligations of the company have arisen for future benefits derived by its employees. All forms of consideration given by the entities in exchange for service rendered by employees are defined as employee benefits. Calculations for employee benefits and their accounting is very important for companies. For this reason, the subject of employee benefits is discussed in many national and international accounting and financial reporting standards. In Turkey, this subject is discussed in TAS 19 Employee Benefits Standard. In this study, accounting for defined pension plans within the scope of TAS 19 and its economic con- sequences emerged by the use of fair value in accounting for these pension plans are discussed.

The objective of this study is to analyze the impact of the Master Plan for Primary Health Care (PDAPS) in everyday health care, according to the vision of municipal managers. This is a qualitative approach and its theoretical and methodological dialectics, research scenarios were six municipalities that had different population groups and the instrument used for data collection was an interview with screenplay semi-structured with managers and professionals Attention primary health care. The...

Full Text Available This paper examines the effect of gainsharing provisions on the selection of a discount rate for a defined benefit pension plan. The paper uses a traditional actuarial approach of discounting liabilities using the expected return of the associated pension fund. A stochastic Excel model was developed to simulate the effect of varying investment returns on a pension fund with four asset classes. Lognormal distributions were fitted to historical returns of two of the asset classes; large company stocks and long-term government bonds. A third lognormal distribution was designed to represent the investment returns of alternative investments, such as real estate and private equity. The fourth asset class represented short term cash investments and that return was held constant. The following variables were analyzed to determine their relative impact of gainsharing on the selection of a discount rate: hurdle rate, percentage of gainsharing, actuarial asset method smoothing period, and variations in asset allocation. A 50% gainsharing feature can reduce the discount rate for a defined benefit pension plan from 0.5% to more than 2.5%, depending on the gainsharing design and asset allocation.

Full Text Available The objective of this study is to analyze the impact of the Master Plan for Primary Health Care (PDAPS in everyday health care, according to the vision of municipal managers. This is a qualitative approach and its theoretical and methodological dialectics, research scenarios were six municipalities that had different population groups and the instrument used for data collection was an interview with screenplay semi-structured with managers and professionals Attention primary health care. The results indicate that the qualification of Attention primary health care was presented by managers through the perception changes after deployment process PDAPS. The reorganization was due to the incorporation of tools, such as mapping, host, local programming, protocols and clinical guidelines to standardize processes, actions and behaviors in Attention primary health care. In addition to incorporating tools, there is the qualification of professionals, empowering them as transformers do in health. We conclude that the greatest impact of the deployment of PDAPS refers to the knowledge and use of tools, for an existing Attention primary health care with better health indicators and solving the greatest assistance.

Full Text Available This paper aim at studying a mean-variance portfolio selection problem with stochastic salary, proportional administrative costs and taxation in the accumulation phase of a defined contribution (DC pension scheme. The fund process is subjected to taxation while the contribution of the pension plan member (PPM is tax exempt. It is assumed that the flow of contributions of a PPM are invested into a market that is characterized by a cash account and a stock. The optimal portfolio processes and expected wealth for the PPM are established. The efficient and parabolic frontiers of a PPM portfolios in mean-variance are obtained. It was found that capital market line can be attained when initial fund and the contribution rate are zero. It was also found that the optimal portfolio process involved an inter-temporal hedging term that will offset any shocks to the stochastic salary of the PPM.

Neurofibromatosis type 1 is associated with executive dysfunctions and comorbidity with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in 30% to 50% of children. This study was designed to clarify the neurocognitive phenotype observed in neurofibromatosis type 1 by testing the hypothesis that children with neurofibromatosis type 1 have specific planning deficits independently from intellectual level and ADHD comorbidity. Eighteen children with neurofibromatosis type 1 were pair-matched to 18 children with ADHD and 18 healthy controls. All groups were assessed on the presence of ADHD symptoms (Conners Scales) and planning deficits (Tower of London). Compared with control group, groups with neurofibromatosis type 1 and ADHD demonstrated significant impairment of planning and problem solving. The lack of correlation between Tower of London results and Conners subscale scores in neurofibromatosis type 1 group confirmed that the planning and problem-solving deficit is not directly related to inattention level. These findings suggested that the executive impairment probably represents a peculiar trait of neurofibromatosis type 1 neurocognitive phenotype.

The east mountain area of central New Mexico includes the eastern one-third of Bernalillo County and portions of Sandoval, Santa Fe, and Torrance Counties. The area covers about 320 square miles. The Madera Limestone, the principal aquifer in the east mountain area, is the sole source of water for domestic, municipal, industrial, and agricultural uses for many residents. Some water is imported from wells near Edgewood by the Entranosa Water Cooperative, which serves a population of approximately 3,300. The remaining population is served by small water systems that derive supplies locally or by individually owned domestic wells. The population of the east mountain area has increased dramatically over the past 20 years. In 1970, the population of the east mountain area was about 4,000. Demographic projections suggest that approximately 1,000 people per year are moving into the area, and with a growth rate of 3.0 percent the population will be 16,700 in 2000. Consequently, ground-water withdrawals have increased substantially over the past 20 years, and will continue to increase. Little is known about the flow characteristics and hydrogeologic properties of the Madera Limestone. This report describes existing information about the geologic and hydrologic framework and flow characteristics of the Madera Limestone, and presents a plan of study for data-collection activities and interpretive studies that could be conducted to better define the hydrogeologic characteristics of the Madera Limestone. Data-collection activities and interpretive studies related to the hydrogeologic components of the Madera Limestone are prioritized. Activities that are necessary to improve the quantification of a component are prioritized as essential. Activities that could add additional understanding of a component, but would not be necessary to improve the quantification of a component, are prioritized as useful.

This article focuses on recommendations for naming, defining, diagnosing, classifying, and planning supports for individuals with intellectual disability (ID). The article provides an overview of the essential questions addressed by the respective functions and provides a series of specific recommendations that address the high stakes involved for…

This article focuses on the power of naming, defining, diagnosing, classifying, and planning supports for people with intellectual disability. The article summarizes current thinking regarding these five functions, states the essential question addressed by the respective function, and provides an overview of the high stakes involved for people…

Purpose: To identify an optimal margin about the gross target volume (GTV) for stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) of brain metastases, minimizing toxicity and local recurrence. Methods and Materials: Adult patients with 1 to 3 brain metastases less than 4 cm in greatest dimension, no previous brain radiation therapy, and Karnofsky performance status (KPS) above 70 were eligible for this institutional review board–approved trial. Individual lesions were randomized to 1- or 3- mm uniform expansion of the GTV defined on contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The resulting planning target volume (PTV) was treated to 24, 18, or 15 Gy marginal dose for maximum PTV diameters less than 2, 2 to 2.9, and 3 to 3.9 cm, respectively, using a linear accelerator–based image-guided system. The primary endpoint was local recurrence (LR). Secondary endpoints included neurocognition Mini-Mental State Examination, Trail Making Test Parts A and B, quality of life (Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Brain), radionecrosis (RN), need for salvage radiation therapy, distant failure (DF) in the brain, and overall survival (OS). Results: Between February 2010 and November 2012, 49 patients with 80 brain metastases were treated. The median age was 61 years, the median KPS was 90, and the predominant histologies were non–small cell lung cancer (25 patients) and melanoma (8). Fifty-five, 19, and 6 lesions were treated to 24, 18, and 15 Gy, respectively. The PTV/GTV ratio, volume receiving 12 Gy or more, and minimum dose to PTV were significantly higher in the 3-mm group (all P

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the Homework, Organization, and Planning Skills (HOPS) intervention for middle school students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as implemented by school mental health (SMH) providers using a randomized trial design. Seventeen SMH providers from five school districts implemented the HOPS…

We tested the ability of Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model to predict intention to graduate among Canadian and Israeli students with and without a learning disability/attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (LD/ADHD). Results based on 1486 postsecondary students show that the model's predictors (i.e., attitude, subjective norms,…

Shared attention is extremely common. In stadiums, public squares, and private living rooms, people attend to the world with others. Humans do so across all sensory modalities-sharing the sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and textures of everyday life with one another. The potential for attending with others has grown considerably with the emergence of mass media technologies, which allow for the sharing of attention in the absence of physical co-presence. In the last several years, studies have begun to outline the conditions under which attending together is consequential for human memory, motivation, judgment, emotion, and behavior. Here, I advance a psychological theory of shared attention, defining its properties as a mental state and outlining its cognitive, affective, and behavioral consequences. I review empirical findings that are uniquely predicted by shared-attention theory and discuss the possibility of integrating shared-attention, social-facilitation, and social-loafing perspectives. Finally, I reflect on what shared-attention theory implies for living in the digital world.

Health services planning on a regional or national level needs information on health care utilization as well as data on the population to be served. Health or hospital information systems usually cover services provision and utilization, and population data for planning purposes must be obtained from other sources. In the health information system presented, hospital performance data are combined with census and socioeconomic data of the population. That makes cautious analysis of reasons for variation in health care utilization within the planning area possible. The HIS is regional, including 11 health care providers, and population based, linking data to municipality (38 in all). The system is described, including its structure, input registration, file content and output formats. An output example is presented. Necessary conditions for use of the HIS in planning activities are that the corresponding health care delivery system is comprehensive, the population served well defined, and that good control of patient flow and user behaviour is achieved. Use is limited by the character of information stored in the HIS: it is registered retrospectively and by routine. In a system covering various hospitals and municipalities, engaging different types of clerical and health care personnel, data reliability is also a critical issue.

Mining is an economic activity which is necessary to provide raw materials for the different socio-productive networks of the country. Its application depends on the mineralogical occurrence offered by the geological conditions of an area and requires planning due to the fact that it needs to be located in a geographical space and the environment fragility of this space and the socio-economic and political-institutional legislation at a given moment all have to be taken into account. Therefore, the objective of this research consists of a proposal for a methodological model to define areas with mining adapted to the Venezuelan context of land-use planning, in order to assign mining uses to the most appropriate areas for that goal, considering the selection, assessment and integration of a series of variables and indicators adjusted to the thematic information available. (Author)

Routine human behavior has often been attributed to plans--mental representations of sequences goals and actions--but can also be attributed to more opportunistic interactions of mind and a structured environment. This study asks whether performance on a task traditionally analyzed in terms of plans can be better understood from a "situated" (or…

Little is known about which ADHD core symptom or subtype is most associated with visuospatial planning deficit. This issue was investigated in a sample of 408 youths with current DSM-IV diagnosis of ADHD, and 332 youths without lifetime ADHD, aged 8-17 years (mean age 12.02±2.24). All the participants and their mothers were interviewed using the Chinese Kiddie Epidemiologic version of the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia to obtain information about ADHD symptoms and diagnosis and other psychiatric disorders. In addition to clinical assessments, the participants were assessed with the WISC-III and the Stocking of Cambridge task of the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery. Multi-level regression models were used for data analysis. The results showed that univariate analyses revealed that inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity were significantly associated with visuospatial planning, and the magnitude of such association was amplified with increased task difficulties. Only inattention independently predicted visuospatial planning in a model that included all three ADHD symptoms. After further controlling for comorbidity, age of assessment, treatment with methylphenidate, and Full-scale IQ, inattention was still independently associated with visuospatial planning indexed by mean moves needed to solve problems. In subtype comparison, participants with combined subtype and those with prominently inattentive subtype, rather than prominently hyperactivity/impulsivity subtype, had poorer visuospatial planning performance. Our findings indicate that inattention is independently associated with impaired visuospatial planning, and dimensional approach retains the important distinction among ADHD symptoms than subtype approach in understanding the neuropsychological functioning of ADHD.

This essay is about a plan for the treatment of Friedrich Nietzsche by Josef Breuer in the spring of 1878. The plan was developed by Siegfried Lipiner, a philosphy student from Galicia and an admirer of Nietzsche, who was acquainted with Breuer as well as with Freud. Lipiner was convinced that Nietzsche could be treated by the Viennese specialists and tried his best to arrange this. However all his endeavors were frustrated by the opposition of Nietzsche's advisors in Basel, as well as his docters, and ultimately of Nietzsche himself who preferred the cold-water therapy in Baden-Baden.

Bodily movement has long been employed as a foundation for cultivating mental skills such as attention, self-control or mindfulness, with recent studies documenting the positive impacts of mindful movement training, such as yoga and tai chi. A parallel “mind-body connection” has also been observed in many developmental disorders. We elaborate a spectrum of mindfulness by considering ADHD, in which deficient motor control correlates with impaired (disinhibited) behavioral control contributing to defining features of excessive distractibility and impulsivity. These data provide evidence for an important axis of variation for wellbeing, in which skillful cognitive control covaries with a capacity for skillful movement. We review empirical and theoretical literature on attention, cognitive control, mind wandering, mindfulness and skill learning, endorsing a model of skilled attention in which motor plans, attention, and executive goals are seen as mutually co-defining aspects of skilled behavior that are linked by reciprocal inhibitory and excitatory connections. Thus, any movement training should engage “higher-order” inhibition and selection and develop a repertoire of rehearsed procedures that coordinate goals, attention and motor plans. However, we propose that mindful movement practice may improve the functional quality of rehearsed procedures, cultivating a transferrable skill of attention. We adopt Langer’s spectrum of mindful learning that spans from “mindlessness” to engagement with the details of the present task and contrast this with the mental attitudes cultivated in standard mindfulness meditation. We particularly follow Feldenkrais’ suggestion that mindful learning of skills for organizing the body in movement might transfer to other forms of mental activity. The results of mindful movement training should be observed in multiple complementary measures, and may have tremendous potential benefit for individuals with ADHD and other

Bodily movement has long been employed as a foundation for cultivating mental skills such as attention, self-control or mindfulness, with recent studies documenting the positive impacts of mindful movement training, such as yoga and tai chi. A parallel "mind-body connection" has also been observed in many developmental disorders. We elaborate a spectrum of mindfulness by considering ADHD, in which deficient motor control correlates with impaired (disinhibited) behavioral control contributing to defining features of excessive distractibility and impulsivity. These data provide evidence for an important axis of variation for wellbeing, in which skillful cognitive control covaries with a capacity for skillful movement. We review empirical and theoretical literature on attention, cognitive control, mind wandering, mindfulness and skill learning, endorsing a model of skilled attention in which motor plans, attention, and executive goals are seen as mutually co-defining aspects of skilled behavior that are linked by reciprocal inhibitory and excitatory connections. Thus, any movement training should engage "higher-order" inhibition and selection and develop a repertoire of rehearsed procedures that coordinate goals, attention and motor plans. However, we propose that mindful movement practice may improve the functional quality of rehearsed procedures, cultivating a transferrable skill of attention. We adopt Langer's spectrum of mindful learning that spans from "mindlessness" to engagement with the details of the present task and contrast this with the mental attitudes cultivated in standard mindfulness meditation. We particularly follow Feldenkrais' suggestion that mindful learning of skills for organizing the body in movement might transfer to other forms of mental activity. The results of mindful movement training should be observed in multiple complementary measures, and may have tremendous potential benefit for individuals with ADHD and other populations.

Full Text Available Bodily movement has long been employed as a foundation for cultivating mental skills such as attention, self-control or mindfulness, with recent studies documenting the positive impacts of mindful movement training, such as yoga and tai chi. A parallel mind-body connection has also been observed in many developmental disorders. We elaborate a spectrum of mindfulness by considering ADHD, in which deficient motor control correlates with impaired (disinhibited behavioral control contributing to defining features of excessive distractibility and impulsivity. These data provide evidence for an important axis of variation for wellbeing, in which skillful cognitive control covaries with a capacity for skillful movement. We review empirical and theoretical literature on attention, cognitive control, mind wandering, mindfulness and skill learning, endorsing a model of skilled attention in which motor plans, attention, and executive goals are seen as mutually co-defining aspects of skilled behavior that are linked by reciprocal inhibitory and excitatory connections. Thus, any movement training should engage higher-order inhibition and selection and develop a repertoire of rehearsed procedures that coordinate goals, attention and motor plans. However, we propose that mindful movement practice may improve the functional quality of rehearsed procedures, cultivating a transferrable skill of attention. We adopt Langer’s spectrum of mindful learning that spans from mindlessness to engagement with the details of the present task and contrast this with the mental attitudes cultivated in standard mindfulness meditation. We particularly follow Feldenkrais’ suggestion that mindful learning of skills for organizing the body in movement might transfer to other forms of mental activity. The results of mindful movement training should be observed in multiple complementary measures, and may have tremendous potential benefit for individuals with ADHD and other

Full Text Available Purpose: We analysed the cognitive influence on walking in multiple sclerosis (MS patients, in the absence of clinical disability. Method: A case-control study was conducted with 12 MS patients with no disability and 12 matched healthy controls. Subjects were referred for completion a timed walk test of 10 m and a 3D-kinematic analysis. Participants were instructed to walk at a comfortable speed in a dual-task (arithmetic task condition, and motor planning was measured by mental chronometry. Results: Scores of walking speed and cadence showed no statistically significant differences between the groups in the three conditions. The dual-task condition showed an increase in the double support duration in both groups. Motor imagery analysis showed statistically significant differences between real and imagined walking in patients. Conclusion: MS patients with no disability did not show any influence of divided attention on walking execution. However, motor planning was overestimated as compared with real walking.

In these years digital media and wireless networks are introduced in upper secondary schools in Denmark. This implies new “attentional objects” like updates on Facebook or tweets on Twitter within instant reach of the pupils and teachers. Also it implies new kinds of attention (awareness) like when...... pupils try to listen to the teacher and simultaneously participate in online games. To this new social setting the teachers has reacted with either prohibition or unconcern. What has not been realised is that the introduction of new media profoundly challenges the way attention hitherto has functioned...... as a psychic prerequisite for the social interaction between pupils and teachers. New kinds of “split attention” arise and new kinds of social mediation (regulation and “use”) of psychic attention become necessary if teaching in the new digital medium milieu shall be beneficial. In this paper we qualify...

This study compared nutrient intakes from 7-day menus for the US MyPlate and DASH Eating Plan versus the cutoff points for green lights defined by the UK's multiple traffic light (MTL) scheme. For both diets, the foods achieved green lights for saturated fat and salt, and for beverages for total fat, saturated fat and salt. The other nutrients achieved amber lights but were within the range of the two diets. By contrast, the MTL threshold for salt in beverages was outside the range of the diets. The values for salt in beverages in the MyPlate and Dash diet plans were 0.06±0.07 and 0.19±0.01 (s.d.) g/100 ml, which are both considerably lower compared with the cutoff of 0.3 g/100 ml for an MTL green light. Adjusting the green MTL threshold values to the median values for a healthful diet could help make MTL labelling a more valid way of helping consumers choose a healthful diet.

Resilience has been discussed in ecology for over forty years. While some aspects of resilience have received attention in transport planning, there is no unified definition of resilience in transportation. To define resilience in transportation, I trace back to the origin of resilience in ecology with a view of revealing the essence of resilience thinking and its relevance to transport planning. Based on the fundamental concepts of engineering resilience and ecological resilience, I define "...

Resilience has been discussed in ecology for over forty years. While some aspects of resilience have received attention in transport planning, there is no unified definition of resilience in transportation. To define resilience in transportation, I trace back to the origin of resilience in ecology with a view of revealing the essence of resilience thinking and its relevance to transport planning. Based on the fundamental concepts of engineering resilience and ecological resilience, I define "...

Data science is gaining more and more and widespread attention, but no consensus viewpoint on what data science is has emerged. As a new science, its objects of study and scientific issues should not be covered by established sciences. Data in cyberspace have formed what we call datanature. In the present paper, data science is defined as the science of exploring datanature.

childbearing plans. They worried about the health of their largely unborn children. While most plan to undertake genetic testing (and 7 of the 40 had...hospitals to request review of the status of the mothers whose daughters we plan to contact to insure that there have been no maternal deaths in

"Project" is a key concept in IS management. The word is frequently used in textbooks and standards. Yet we seldom find a precise definition of the concept. This paper discusses how to define the concept of a project. The proposed definition covers both heavily formalized projects and informally...... organized, agile projects. Based on the proposed definition popular existing definitions are discussed....

Attracting attention is a basic feature of economic life but no standard economic problem. A new theoretical model is developed which describes the general structure of competition for attention and characterizes equilibria. The exogenous fundamentals of an attention economy are the space of receiving subjects with their attention capacity, and the potential set of competing companies (senders) with their radiation technologies. The endogenous variables explained by the theory are equilibrium...

In inverse planning, the likelihood for the points in a target or sensitive structure to meet their dosimetric goals is generally heterogeneous and represents the a priori knowledge of the system once the patient and beam configuration are chosen. Because of this intrinsic heterogeneity, in some extreme cases, a region in a target may never meet the prescribed dose without seriously deteriorating the doses in other areas. Conversely, the prescription in a region may be easily met without violating the tolerance of any sensitive structure. In this work, we introduce the concept of dosimetric capability to quantify the a priori information and develop a strategy to integrate the data into the inverse planning process. An iterative algorithm is implemented to numerically compute the capability distribution on a case specific basis. A method of incorporating the capability data into inverse planning is developed by heuristically modulating the importance of the individual voxels according to the a priori capability distribution. The formalism is applied to a few specific examples to illustrate the technical details of the new inverse planning technique. Our study indicates that the dosimetric capability is a useful concept to better understand the complex inverse planning problem and an effective use of the information allows us to construct a clinically more meaningful objective function to improve IMRT dose optimization techniques. Part of this work was presented in the 14th International Conference on the Use of Computers in Radiation Therapy, Seoul, Korea, 2004.

The term "biobank" first appeared in the scientific literature in 1996 and for the next five years was used mainly to describe human population-based biobanks. In recent years, the term has been used in a more general sense and there are currently many different definitions to be found in reports, guidelines and regulatory documents. Some definitions are general, including all types of biological sample collection facilities. Others are specific and limited to collections of human samples, sometimes just to population-based collections. In order to help resolve the confusion on this matter, we conducted a survey of the opinions of people involved in managing sample collections of all types. This survey was conducted using an online questionnaire that attracted 303 responses. The results show that there is consensus that the term biobank may be applied to biological collections of human, animal, plant or microbial samples; and that the term biobank should only be applied to sample collections with associated sample data, and to collections that are managed according to professional standards. There was no consensus on whether a collection's purpose, size or level of access should determine whether it is called a biobank. Putting these findings into perspective, we argue that a general, broad definition of biobank is here to stay, and that attention should now focus on the need for a universally-accepted, systematic classification of the different biobank types.

In most countries, the lack of explicit health workforce planning has resulted in imbalances that threaten the capacity of healthcare systems to attain their objectives. This has directed attention towards the prospect of developing healthcare systems that are more responsive to the needs and expectations of the population by providing health planners with a systematic method to effectively manage human resources in this sector. This review analyses various approaches to health workforce planning and presents the Six-Step Methodology to Integrated Workforce Planning which highlights essential elements in workforce planning to ensure the quality of services. The purpose, scope and ownership of the approach is defined. Furthermore, developing an action plan for managing a health workforce is emphasised and a reviewing and monitoring process to guide corrective actions is suggested. PMID:25685381

Visual attention, defined as the ability of a biological or artificial vision system to rapidly detect potentially relevant parts of a visual scene, provides a general purpose solution for low level feature detection in a vision architecture. Well considered for its universal detection behaviour, the general model of visual attention is suited for any environment but inferior to dedicated feature detectors in more specific environments. The goal of the development presented in this paper is t...

Excellence in the pharmacy profession, particularly pharmacy management, is defined. Several factors have a significant effect on the ability to reach a given level of excellence. The first is the economic and political climate in which pharmacists practice. Stricter controls, reduced resources, and the velocity of change all necessitate nurturing of values and a work ethic to maintain excellence. Excellence must be measured by the services provided with regard to the resources available; thus, the ability to achieve excellence is a true test of leadership and innovation. Excellence is also time dependent, and today's innovation becomes tomorrow's standard. Programs that raise the level of patient care, not those that aggrandize the profession, are the most important. In addition, basic services must be practiced at a level of excellence. Quality assessment is a way to improve care and bring medical treatment to a higher plane of excellence. For such assessment to be effective and not punitive, the philosophy of the program must be known, and the goal must be clear. Excellence in practice is dependent on factors such as political and social norms, standards of practice, available resources; perceptions, time, the motivation to progress to a higher level, and the continuous innovation required to reshape the profession to meet the needs of society.

This article examines the shifts in attention and focus as one teacher introduces and explains an image that represents the processes involved in a numeric problem that his students have been working on. This paper takes a micro-analytic approach to examine how the focus of attention shifts through what the teacher and students do and say in the…

This article examines the shifts in attention and focus as one teacher introduces and explains an image that represents the processes involved in a numeric problem that his students have been working on. This paper takes a micro-analytic approach to examine how the focus of attention shifts through what the teacher and students do and say in the…

Target volume definition in modern radiotherapy is based on planning computed tomography (CT). So far, 18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) has not been included in planning modality in volume definition of esophageal cancer. This study evaluates fusion of FDG-PET and CT in patients with esophageal cancer in terms of geographic misses and inter-observer variability in volume definition. In 28 esophageal cancer patients, gross, clinical and planning tumor volumes (GTV; CTV; PTV) were defined on planning CT by three radiation oncologists. After software-based emission tomography and computed tomography (PET/CT) fusion, tumor delineations were redefined by the same radiation-oncologists. Concordance indexes (CCI's) for CT and PET/CT based GTV, CTV and PTV were calculated for each pair of observers. Incorporation of PET/CT modified tumor delineation in 17/28 subjects (61%) in cranial and/or caudal direction. Mean concordance indexes for CT-based CTV and PTV were 72 (55-86)% and 77 (61-88)%, respectively, vs. 72 (47-99)% and 76 (54-87)% for PET/CT-based CTV and PTV. Paired analyses showed no significant difference in CCI between CT and PET/CT. Combining FDG-PET and CT may improve target volume definition with less geographic misses, but without significant effects on inter-observer variability in esophageal cancer.

This software sketch was used in the context of an experiment for the PhD project “Ambient Learning Displays”. The sketch comprises a custom-built attention sensor. The sensor measured (during the experiment) whether a participant looked at and thus attended a public display. The sensor was built us

This software sketch was used in the context of an experiment for the PhD project “Ambient Learning Displays”. The sketch comprises a custom-built attention sensor. The sensor measured (during the experiment) whether a participant looked at and thus attended a public display. The sensor was built us

Indonesia is the country with the 4th largest population in the worlds; the population reached more than 237 million people. With rice as the staple food for more than 95 percent of the population, there is an important role of paddy field in Indonesian food security. Actually, paddy field in Java has produced 52,6% of the total rice production in Indonesia, showing the very high dependence of Indonesia on food production from paddy fields in Java island. Karawang Regency is one of the regions in West Java Province that contribute to the national food supply, due to its high soil fertility and its high extent of paddy field. Dynamics of land use change in this region are high because of its proximity to urban area; this dynamics has led to paddy field conversion to industry and residential landuse, which in turn change the regional rice production capacity. Decreasing paddy field landuse in this region could be serve as an example case of the general phenomena which occurred in Javanese rice production region. The objective of this study were: (i) to identify the suitable area for paddy field, (ii) to modelize the decreasing of paddy field in socio-economic context of the region, and (iii) to plan the spatial priority area of paddy field protection according to model prediction. A land evaluation for paddy was completed after a soil survey, while IKONOS imagery was analyzed to delineate paddy fields. Dynamic system model of paddy field land use is built, and then based on the model built, the land area of paddy field untill 2040 in some scenarios was developped. The research results showed that the land suitability class for paddy fields in Karawang Regency ranged from very suitable (S1) to marginally suitable (S3), with various land characteristics as limiting factors. The model predicts that if the situation of paddy field land use change continues in its business as usual path, paddy field area that would exist in the region in 2040 will stay half of the recent

Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Coding (NC) are two key concepts in networking that have garnered a large attention in recent years. On the one hand, SDN's potential to virtualize services in the Internet allows a large flexibility not only for routing data, but also to manage buffe...

Visual information is believed to be processed through two distinct, yet interacting cortical streams. The ventral stream performs the computations needed for recognition of objects and faces ("what" and "who"?) and the dorsal stream the computations for registering spatial relationships and for controlling visually guided actions ("where" and "how"?). We initially proposed a model of spatial deficits in Williams syndrome (WS) in which visual abilities subserved by the ventral stream, such as face recognition, are relatively well developed (although not necessarily in exactly the same way as in typical development), whereas dorsal-stream functions, such as visuospatial actions, are markedly impaired. Since these initial findings in WS, deficits of motion coherence sensitivity, a dorsal-stream function has been found in other genetic disorders such as Fragile X and autism, and as a consequence of perinatal events (in hemiplegia, perinatal brain anomalies following very premature birth), leading to the proposal of a general "dorsal-stream vulnerability" in many different conditions of abnormal human development. In addition, dorsal-stream systems provide information used in tasks of visuospatial memory and locomotor planning, and these systems are closely coupled to networks for attentional control. We and several other research groups have previously shown deficits of frontal and parietal lobe function in WS individuals for specific attention tasks [e.g., Atkinson, J., Braddick, O., Anker, S., Curran, W., & Andrew, R. (2003). Neurobiological models of visuospatial cognition in children with Williams Syndrome: Measures of dorsal-stream and frontal function. Developmental Neuropsychology, 23(1/2), 141-174.]. We have used the Test of Everyday Attention for Children (TEA-Ch) which aims to attempt to separate components of attention with distinct brain networks (selective attention, sustained attention, and attention control-executive function) testing a group of older

In the past two decades, there has been an increased interest in the assessment and treatment of preschool children presenting with concerns about attention problems. This article reviews the research and clinical literature involving assessment of attention and related skills in the preschool years. While inattention among preschoolers is common, symptoms alone do not necessarily indicate a disorder, and most often represent a normal variation in typical preschool child development. Thus, accurate identification of "disordered" attention in preschoolers can be challenging, and development of appropriate, norm-referenced tests of attention for preschoolers is also difficult. The current review suggests that comprehensive assessment of attention and related functions in the preschool child should include thorough review of the child's history, planned observations, and formal psychometric testing. The three primary methods of psychometric assessment that have been used to characterize attentional functioning in preschool children include performance-based tests, structured caregiver interviews, and rating scales (parent, teacher, and clinician). Among performance-based methods for measurement of attention in the preschool years, tests have been developed to assess sustained attention, selective (focused) attention, span of attention (encoding/manipulation), and (top-down) controlled attention--including freedom from distractibility and set shifting. Many of these tests remain experimental in nature, and review of published methods yields relatively few commercially available, nationally normed tests of attention for preschoolers, and an overall dearth of reliability and validity studies on the available measures.

Nutrition and dietary survey data has been useful in defining themagnitude of malnutrition and dietary deficit. Such information has been helpful in gaining attention to support or to do more to improve nutrition-advocacy. However, there are also greater opportunities to use the common data to guide the program action. In summary, we have plenty of good nutrition and dietary information available to us in the planning and operation of nutrition intervention program. If we go beyond the use of data to justify area or subject of engagement, we can also use the same data for more efficient and more effective program without additional cost to us.

In the past two decades, there has been an increased interest in the assessment and treatment of preschool children presenting with concerns about attention problems. This article reviews the research and clinical literature involving assessment of attention and related skills in the preschool years. While inattention among preschoolers is common, symptoms alone do not necessarily indicate a disorder, and most often represent a normal variation in typical preschool child development. Thus, accurate identification of “disordered” attention in preschoolers can be challenging, and development of appropriate, norm-referenced tests of attention for preschoolers is also difficult. The current review suggests that comprehensive assessment of attention and related functions in the preschool child should include thorough review of the child’s history, planned observations, and formal psychometric testing. The three primary methods of psychometric assessment that have been used to characterize attentional functioning in preschool children include performance-based tests, structured caregiver interviews, and rating scales (parent, teacher, and clinician). Among performance-based methods for measurement of attention in the preschool years, tests have been developed to assess sustained attention, selective (focused) attention, span of attention (encoding/manipulation), and (top-down) controlled attention—including freedom from distractibility and set shifting. Many of these tests remain experimental in nature, and review of published methods yields relatively few commercially available, nationally normed tests of attention for preschoolers, and an overall dearth of reliability and validity studies on the available measures. PMID:23090646

Purpose: The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) devised an algorithm to classify veterans as Urban, Rural, or Highly Rural residents. To understand the policy implications of the VHA scheme, we compared its categories to 3 Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and 4 Rural-Urban Commuting Area (RUCA) geographical categories. Method: Using…

The merits of strategic planning as a marketing tool are discussed in this article which takes the view that although marketers claim to be future-oriented, they focus too little attention on long-term planning and forecasting. Strategic planning, as defined by these authors, usually encompasses periods of between five and twenty-five years and places less emphasis on the past as an absolute predictor of the future. It takes a more probabilistic view of the future than conventional marketing strategy and looks at the corporation as but one component interacting with the total environment. Inputs are examined in terms of environmental, social, political, technological and economic importance. Because of its futuristic orientation, an important tenant of strategic planning is the preparation of several alternative scenarios ranging from most to least likely. By planning for a wide-range of future market conditions, a corporation is more able to be flexible by anticipating the course of future events, and is less likely to become a captive reactor--as the authors believe is now the case. An example of strategic planning at General Elecric is cited.

This paper presents an easily comprehended approach to the strategic financial planning process. It utilizes a balance sheet approach that focuses attention on three key business policy decisions: asset growth rates, debt policy, and equity growth policy. Because the approach taken here does not get involved with the numerous assumptions and projections involved in a typical funds flow approach to financial planning, it is easier to understand and use by both boards and top management. A financial plan is defined as a bridge between two balance sheets.

Changes in sustained attention, attentional selectivity, and attentional capacity were examined in a sample of 113 participants between the ages of 12 and 75. To measure sustained attention, we employed the sustained-attention-to-response task (Robertson, Manly, Andrade, Baddeley, & Yiend, Neuropsychologia 35:747-58, 1997), a short continuous-performance test designed to capture fluctuations in sustained attention. To measure attentional selectivity and capacity, we employed a paradigm based on the theory of visual attention (Bundesen, Psychological Review 97:523-547, 1990), which enabled the estimation of parameters related to attentional selection, perceptual threshold, visual short-term memory capacity, and processing capacity. We found evidence of age-related decline in each of the measured variables, but the declines varied markedly in terms of magnitude and lifespan trajectory. Variables relating to attentional capacity showed declines of very large effect sizes, while variables relating to attentional selectivity and sustained attention showed declines of medium to large effect sizes, suggesting that attentional control is relatively preserved in older adults. The variables relating to sustained attention followed a U-shaped, curvilinear trend, and the variables relating to attentional selectivity and capacity showed linear decline from early adulthood, providing further support for the differentiation of attentional functions.

by the urban privilege to define the rural qualities and creation of local conflicts and that mechanisms of power that cause such unintended outcomes of rural planning projects should be uncovered. Inspired by Foucault's interpretation of power the paper carries out a grounded theory inspired analysis......This paper explores the specific mechanisms of power in participatory rural planning projects. It follows up on suggestions in planning literature about directing focus at the relational level in the assessment of power, rather than on who has power and who doesn't. The paper argues...... of a Danish rural participatory planning project. The paper concludes that rural planning literature and analysis will benefits from paying attention to the three – in rural participatory planning projects – specific mechanisms of power ‘Institutionalising knowledge and competencies’; ‘Structuring...

Succession planning is a business strategy that has recently gained attention in the healthcare literature, primarily because of nursing shortage concerns and the demand for retaining knowledgeable personnel to meet organizational needs. Little research has been conducted in healthcare settings that clearly defines best practices for succession planning frameworks. To effectively carry out such organizational strategies during these challenging times, an integrative review of succession planning in healthcare was performed to identify consistencies in theoretical approaches and strategies for chief nursing officers and healthcare managers to initiate. Selected articles were compared with business succession planning to determine whether healthcare strategies were similar to best practices already established in business contexts. The results of this integrative review will aid leaders and managers to use succession planning as a tool in their recruitment, retention, mentoring, and administration activities and also provide insights for future development of healthcare succession planning frameworks.

This paper explores the specific mechanisms of power in participatory rural planning projects. It follows up on suggestions in planning literature about directing focus at the relational level in the assessment of power, rather than on who has power and who doesn't. The paper argues...... by the urban privilege to define the rural qualities and creation of local conflicts and that mechanisms of power that cause such unintended outcomes of rural planning projects should be uncovered. Inspired by Foucault's interpretation of power the paper carries out a grounded theory inspired analysis...... of a Danish rural participatory planning project. The paper concludes that rural planning literature and analysis will benefits from paying attention to the three – in rural participatory planning projects – specific mechanisms of power ‘Institutionalising knowledge and competencies’; ‘Structuring...

随着我国社会主义市场经济的不断深入，大学生的就业问题也成为了被社会普遍关注的焦点，受经济危机的影响，大学生的就业问题显现的日益严重。而职业规划作为大学生就业的准备阶段，其工作开展的重要性毋庸置疑。本文以经济危机的时代背景为基础，就大学生职业规划应注意的问题进行了分析与探讨。%Along with the deepening of socialist market economy continues in our country, the employment of college students has become the focus of social attention, affected by the economic crisis, the employment problem of college students is more serious. While the occupation planning as a preliminary to the employment of university students, the importance of the work without a doubt. In this paper, based on the background of economic crisis, the occupation planning is analyzed and discussed.

Consciousness remains an elusive concept due to the difficulty to define what has been regarded for many years as a subjective experience, therefore irrelevant for scientific study. Recent development in this field of research has allowed to provide some new insight to a possible way to define consciousness. Going through the extensive literature in this domain, several perspectives are proposed to define this concept. (1) Consciousness and Attention may not reflect the same process. (2) Consciousness during wake and sleep may not involve the same mechanisms. (3) Besides physiological states of consciousness, human beings can experience modified states of consciousness either by self-training (transcendental meditation, hypnosis, etc.) or by drug intake (hallucinogens, anaesthetics, etc.). Altogether, we address the question of a more precise terminology, given the theoretical weight words can convey. To this respect, we propose different definitions for concepts like consciousness, vigilance, arousal and alertness as candidates to separate functional entities.

Covert attention is tightly coupled with the control of eye movements, but there is controversy about how tight this coupling is. The premotor theory of attention proposes that activation of the eye movement system is necessary to produce shifts of attention. In this study, we experimentally prevented healthy participants from planning or…

Covert attention is tightly coupled with the control of eye movements, but there is controversy about how tight this coupling is. The premotor theory of attention proposes that activation of the eye movement system is necessary to produce shifts of attention. In this study, we experimentally prevented healthy participants from planning or…

By using the total resource approach, we have focused attention on the need to integrate human resource planning with other business plans and highlighted the importance of a productivity strategy. (Author)

Abstract Emerging hypotheses suggest that efficient cognitive functioning requires the integration of separate, but interconnected cortical networks in the brain. Although task-related measures of brain activity suggest that a frontoparietal network is associated with the control of attention, little is known regarding how components within this distributed network act together or with other networks to achieve various attentional functions. This review considers both functional and structural studies of brain connectivity, as complemented by behavioral and task-related neuroimaging data. These studies show converging results: The frontal and parietal cortical regions are active together, over time, and identifiable frontoparietal networks are active in relation to specific task demands. However, the spontaneous, low-frequency fluctuations of brain activity that occur in the resting state, without specific task demands, also exhibit patterns of connectivity that closely resemble the task-related, frontoparietal attention networks. Both task-related and resting-state networks exhibit consistent relations to behavioral measures of attention. Further, anatomical structure, particularly white matter pathways as defined by diffusion tensor imaging, places constraints on intrinsic functional connectivity. Lastly, connectivity analyses applied to investigate cognitive differences across individuals in both healthy and diseased states suggest that disconnection of attentional networks is linked to deficits in cognitive functioning, and in extreme cases, to disorders of attention. Thus, comprehensive theories of visual attention and their clinical translation depend on the continued integration of behavioral, task-related neuroimaging, and brain connectivity measures. PMID:23597177

The nonmonotonic deduction relation in default reasoning is defined with fixed point style, which has the many-extension property that classical logic is not possessed of. These two kinds of deductions both have boolean definability property, that is, their extensions or deductive closures can be defined by boolean formulas. A generalized form of fixed point method is employed to define a class of deduction relations, which all have the above property. Theorems on definability and atomless boolean algebras in model theory are essential in dealing with this assertion.

P>Target volume definition in modern radiotherapy is based on planning computed tomography (CT). So far, 18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) has not been included in planning modality in volume definition of esophageal cancer. This study evaluates fusion of FDG-PET and CT in

In the railway field, planning the maintenance and renewal strategy from Life Cycle Cost (LCC) perspective gets more and more attentions recent years. The new approach looks at all the costs through the infrastructure life span and use the annuity (continuing payment with a fixed total annual...... spending) to evaluate the project alternatives. The comparison result can identify the most cost-efficient solution in a long run and therefore reduce the overall costs. This article defines a phase-based framework to guide the railway maintenance and renewal project planning at strategic level...... of railway maintenance and renewals....

Understanding the relation between attention and consciousness is an important part of our understanding of consciousness. Attention, unlike consciousness, can be systematically manipulated in psychophysical experiments and a law-like relation between attention and consciousness is waiting to be discovered. Most attempts to discover the nature of this relation are focused on a special type of attention: spatial visual attention. In this review I want to introduce another type of attention to ...

Full Text Available “Smart city” is a concept that has been the subject of increasing attention in urban planning and governance during recent years. The first step to create Smart Cities is to understand its concept. However, a brief review of literature shows that the concept of Smart City is the subject of controversy. Thus, the main purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework to define Smart City. To this aim, an extensive literature review was done. Then, a keyword analysis on literature was held against main research questions (why, what, who, when, where, how and based on three main domains involved in the policy decision making process and Smart City plan development: Academic, Industrial and Governmental. This resulted in a conceptual framework for Smart City. The result clarifies the definition of Smart City, while providing a framework to define Smart City’s each sub-system. Moreover, urban authorities can apply this framework in Smart City initiatives in order to recognize their main goals, main components, and key stakeholders.

The chapter reviews a research programme that has demonstrated the existence of historically defined autobiographical periods and identified the conditions that bring them about. Data from four samples of World War II-generation adults show that historically defined autobiographical periods endure...... over time and theoretical implications are discussed, notably by introducing a new approach to autobiographical memory, Transition Theory, which assumes that autobiographical memory is organized by transitional events that can be selfinitiated or externally imposed - historically defined...

Nutrition and dietary survey data has been useful in defining the magnitude of malnutrition and dietary deficity,Such information has been helpful in gaining attention to support or to do more to improve nutrition-advocacy,However,there are also greater opportunities to use the common data to guide the program action.In summary,we have plenty of good nutrition and dietary information available to us in the planning and operation of nutrition intervention program.If we go beyond the use of data to justity area or subject of engagement,we can also use the same data for more efficient and more effective program without additional cost to us.

Full Text Available Understanding the relation between attention and consciousness is an important part of our understanding of consciousness. Attention, unlike consciousness, can be systematically manipulated in psychophysical experiments and a law-like relation between attention and consciousness is waiting to be discovered. Most attempts to discover the nature of this relation are focused on a special type of attention: spatial visual attention. In this review I want to introduce another type of attention to the discussion: attention to the olfactory modality. I will first clarify the position of attention to smells in a general taxonomy of attention. I will then review the mechanisms and neuroanatomy of attention and consciousness in the olfactory system before using the newly introduced system to provide evidence that attention is necessary for consciousness.

Representation Planning is commonly associated with intelligent behavior in agents [Russell and Norvig , 2003]. The activity of planning can be defined...formulation [Russell and Norvig , 2003], is essential for enabling efficient problem-solving though search [Amarel, 1968]. The Planning Domain Definition... Norvig , 2003]. Preprocessing of planning domains is a technique that has been used to speed up the planning pro- cess [Dawson and Siklossy, 1977]. Perhaps

This paper discusses how legal moralism should be defined. It is argued that legal moralism should be defined as the position that “For any X, it is always a pro tanto reason for justifiably imposing legal regulation on X that X is morally wrong (where “morally wrong” is not conceptually equivalent...

Diploma thesis deals with the processing of a business plan to establish a tour operator, which will offer tours to Puerto Rico. Thesis is divided into theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part explains what is business and related terms. Defines the tourism business and the procedure for the establishment of tour operators. There are also theoretically explained individual chapters of a business plan. The practical part is dedicated to the establishment of tour operator, where is ...

Attention is a core property of all perceptual and cognitive operations. Given limited capacity to process competing options, attentional mechanisms select, modulate, and sustain focus on information most relevant for behavior. A significant problem, however, is that attention is so ubiquitous that it is unwieldy to study. We propose a taxonomy based on the types of information that attention operates over--the targets of attention. At the broadest level, the taxonomy distinguishes between external attention and internal attention. External attention refers to the selection and modulation of sensory information. External attention selects locations in space, points in time, or modality-specific input. Such perceptual attention can also select features defined across any of these dimensions, or object representations that integrate over space, time, and modality. Internal attention refers to the selection, modulation, and maintenance of internally generated information, such as task rules, responses, long-term memory, or working memory. Working memory, in particular, lies closest to the intersection between external and internal attention. The taxonomy provides an organizing framework that recasts classic debates, raises new issues, and frames understanding of neural mechanisms.

Full Text Available This study is situated in the context of the PIBID (Institutional Program for Scholarships for Initiation in Teaching, financed by the CAPES. Belongs to the Subproject Pedagogy and is defined as a subject area, Teaching Models: Special Education and Youth and Adult Education (EJA. Our team acts with a class of the second year of the elementary school on the EMEF General Antônio de Sampaio and our cropping is defined in attention to the development and learning of students, through observations we have identified some students with Attention Deficit Disorder and Hyperactivity traits, then we passed to the planning and development of actions in a preventive way to the consequences of this disorder. We can indicate that the movement of planning and search of formation about the subject has revealed changes both in the way as the teaching was ministered, as the understanding of the involved about the necessity of research of the practice.

A discussion of various attemts at defining documentary film regarding form, content, truth, stile, genre or reception - and a propoposal of a positive list of essential, but non-exclusive characteristica of documentary film......A discussion of various attemts at defining documentary film regarding form, content, truth, stile, genre or reception - and a propoposal of a positive list of essential, but non-exclusive characteristica of documentary film...

We study definably amenable NIP groups. We develop a theory of generics, showing that various definitions considered previously coincide, and study invariant measures. Applications include: characterization of regular ergodic measures, a proof of the conjecture of Petrykowski connecting existence of bounded orbits with definable amenability in the NIP case, and the Ellis group conjecture of Newelski and Pillay connecting the model-theoretic connected component of an NIP group with the ideal s...

Software defined networking has garnered large attention due to its potential to virtualize services in the Internet, introducing flexibility in the buffering, scheduling, processing, and routing of data in network routers. SDN breaks the deadlock that has kept Internet network protocols stagnant...... for decades, while applications and physical links have evolved. This article advocates for the use of SDN to bring about 5G network services by incorporating network coding (NC) functionalities. The latter constitutes a major leap forward compared to the state-of-the- art store and forward Internet paradigm....... The inherent flexibility of both SDN and NC provides fertile ground to envision more efficient, robust, and secure networking designs, which may also incorporate content caching and storage, all of which are key challenges of the upcoming 5G networks. This article not only proposes the fundamentals...

Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Coding (NC) are two key concepts in networking that have garnered a large attention in recent years. On the one hand, SDN's potential to virtualize services in the Internet allows a large flexibility not only for routing data, but also to manage...... buffering, scheduling, and processing over the network. On the other hand, NC has shown great potential for increasing robustness and performance when deployed on intermediate nodes in the network. This new paradigm changes the dynamics of network protocols, requiring new designs that exploit its potential....... This paper advocates for the use of SDN to bring about future Internet and 5G network services by incorporating network coding (NC) functionalities. The inherent flexibility of both SDN and NC provides a fertile ground to envision more efficient, robust, and secure networking designs, that may also...

Visuospatial attention has been shown to have a central role in planning and generation of saccades but what role, if any, it plays in inhibition of saccades remains unclear. In this study, we used an oculomotor delayed match- or nonmatch-to-sample task in which a cued location has to be encoded and memorized for one of two very different goals-to plan a saccade to it or to avoid making a saccade to it. We measured the spatial allocation of attention during the delay and found that while marking a location as a future saccade target resulted in an attentional benefit at that location, marking it as forbidden to saccades led to an attentional cost. Additionally, saccade trajectories were found to deviate away more from the "don't look" location than from a saccade-irrelevant distractor confirming greater inhibition of an actively forbidden location in oculomotor programming. Our finding that attention is suppressed at locations forbidden to saccades confirms and complements the claim of a selective and obligatory coupling between saccades and attention-saccades at the memorized location could neither be planned nor suppressed independent of a corresponding effect on attentional performance.

textabstractOrganizational studies emphasizing the role of attention in organizational behavior depart from the idea that organizations, like individuals, have limited capacity to attend to environmental stimuli. The bounded capacity of the organizations to respond to stimuli is conditioned by the limited cognitions of individuals and by the limited capability of organizations to distribute, coordinate and integrate those cognitions. The cross-level nature of organizational attention, its dua...

Full Text Available The term consciousness is an important one in the vernacular of the western literature in many fields. It is no wonder that scientists have assumed that consciousness will be found as a component of the human brain and that we will come to understand its neural basis. However, there is rather little in common between consciousness as the neurologist would use it to diagnose the vegetative state, how the feminist would use it to support raising male consciousness of the economic plight of women and as the philosopher would use it when defining the really hard question of the subjective state of awareness induced by sensory qualities. When faced with this kind of problem it is usual to subdivide the term into more manageable perhaps partly operational definitions. Three meanings that capture aspects of consciousness are: (1 the neurology of the state of mind allowing coherent orientation to time and place (2 the selection of sensory or memorial information for awareness and (3 the voluntary control over overt responses. In each of these cases the mechanisms of consciousness overlap with one or more of the attentional networks that have been studied with the methods of cognitive neuroscience. In this paper we explore t

Describes research into student attention patterns during lectures that suggests that student attention declines steadily during a lecture, and that the rate of decrease is dependent upon several variables including subject difficulty. (MLH)

promote mutual understanding. Until recently, this revision process has been pushed to the wayside to make way for "bigger" plans of acquisition... tecnological era. 3. Revisions for Actual Questionnaire The transfer of non nuclear weapons, aircraft, equipment, state of the art items and military

Can play be defined? There is reason to raise critical questions about the established academic demand that at phenomenon – also in humanist studies – should first of all be defined, i.e. de-lineated and by neat lines limited to a “little box” that can be handled. The following chapter develops t....... Human beings can very well understand play – or whatever phenomenon in human life – without defining it........ The academic imperative of definition seems to be linked to the positivistic attempts – and produces sometimes monstrous definitions. Have they any philosophical value for our knowledge of what play is? Definition is not a universal instrument of knowledge-building, but a culturally specific construction...

Full Text Available Background. The term ‘homophobia’ was introduced in the academic context more than 40 years ago. However, its meaning has changed over time. Objective. To review the nouns used in the last twelve years to define homophobia. Methodology. The authors conducted a systematic search in Medline through Pubmed that included editorials, letters to editors, comments and narrative reviews, in English and Spanish. A qualitative analysis (Grounded theory was applied to analyze nouns used to define homophobia since 2001 through 2012. Results. Authors reviewed three papers including ten nouns to define homophobia, the most common noun was fear. The terms were grouped into two domains: negative attitude and discomfort with homosexuality. Conclusion. Fear is the most used word to describe homophobia. The terms were grouped into two domains: negative attitude and discomfort toward homosexuality.

In the new digital age, information is available in large quantities. Since information consumes primarily the attention of its recipients, the scarcity of attention is becoming the main limiting factor. In this study, we investigate the impact of advertisement pressure on a cultural market where consumers have a limited attention capacity. A model of competition for attention is developed and investigated analytically and by simulation. Advertisement is found to be much more effective when a...

to define and quantify “intermittent UVR exposure” by an objective measure. Methods: A broad study population of adults and children had data collected during a summer period. Data were personal UVR dosimetry measurements, from which the number of “intermittent days” was derived, sun behaviour diaries.......001). The corresponding numbers for prediction of nevi and lentigo density by retrospective questionnaire data was lower (R2 = 0.11, R2 = 0.26, p defined objective measure of intermittent UVR exposure. This measure may provide a better prediction of solar skin damage and CMM...

Attention processes in 103 children and adults with high functioning autism were compared with a matched control group using a battery of attention measures. Differences were found only on tasks which placed demands on cognitive flexibility or psychomotor speed, suggesting that purported attention deficits in autism may actually be primary…

A distractor can capture attention and impair target processing when it shares a target-defining property and matches specific attentional control settings (ACS). We studied how feature-specific ACS (fACS) and category-specific ACS (cACS) operate in a conjunction search task and how they are influenced by attentional engagement. The feature- and category-matching level and temporal lags between the distractor and target were manipulated in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task. The N2pc component and impairment of target identification, which are associated with attentional allocation at an earlier stage and response selection at a later stage, respectively, were measured as markers of attentional capture. The interaction of two ACSs was observed in behavioral data, but disappeared in N2pc data, suggesting two-stage processing of multiple ACSs during a conjunction search, including an early independent and a late integrated stage. Moreover, a reliable N2pc was observed for fACS regardless of the sufficiency of attentional engagement, whereas the N2pc for cACS was only observed with sufficient attentional engagement, but disappeared when the attentional engagement was insufficient. This suggests that cACS demands sufficient attentional engagement, while fACS does not. In conclusion, fACS and cACS can be activated independently at an earlier stage, but they are integrated at a later stage during a conjunction search task and are differently influenced by attentional engagement.

Though central to any pedagogical development of physics, the concept of mass is still not well understood. Properly defining mass has proven to be far more daunting than contemporary textbooks would have us believe. And yet today the origin of mass is one of the most aggressively pursued areas of research in all of physics. Much of the excitement…

This theoretical paper outlines the process of defining "mathematical giftedness" for a present study on how primary school teaching shapes the mindsets of children who are mathematically gifted. Mathematical giftedness is not a badge of honour or some special value attributed to a child who has achieved something exceptional.…

resources are limited. Hence, to counteract this trend, current QoS mechanisms must become simpler to deploy and operate, in order to motivate NSPs to employ QoS techniques instead of overprovisioning. Software Defined Networking (SDN) represents a paradigm shift in the way telecommunication and data...

The author looks at the meaning of specific terminology commonly used in student surveys: "effective teaching." The research seeks to determine if there is a difference in how "effective teaching" is defined by those taking student surveys and those interpreting the results. To investigate this difference, a sample group of professors and students…

This article defins game mechanics in relation to rules and challenges. Game mechanics are methods invoked by agents for interacting with the game world. I apply this definition to a comparative analysis of the games Rez, Every Extend Extra and Shadow of the Colossus that will show the relevance...... of a formal definition of game mechanics. Udgivelsesdato: Dec 2008...

Within and across thousands of science labs, researchers and students struggle to manage data produced in experiments, simulations, and analyses. Largely manual research data lifecycle management processes mean that much time is wasted, research results are often irreproducible, and data sharing and reuse remain rare. In response, we propose a new approach to data lifecycle management in which researchers are empowered to define the actions to be performed at individual storage systems when data are created or modified: actions such as analysis, transformation, copying, and publication. We term this approach software-defined cyberinfrastructure because users can implement powerful data management policies by deploying rules to local storage systems, much as software-defined networking allows users to configure networks by deploying rules to switches.We argue that this approach can enable a new class of responsive distributed storage infrastructure that will accelerate research innovation by allowing any researcher to associate data workflows with data sources, whether local or remote, for such purposes as data ingest, characterization, indexing, and sharing. We report on early experiments with this approach in the context of experimental science, in which a simple if-trigger-then-action (IFTA) notation is used to define rules.

Discusses some aspects of the defining process in geometrical context in the reference frame of the theory of "figural concepts." Presents analysis of some examples taken from a teaching experiment at the sixth-grade level. Contains 30 references. (Author/ASK)

This article defins game mechanics in relation to rules and challenges. Game mechanics are methods invoked by agents for interacting with the game world. I apply this definition to a comparative analysis of the games Rez, Every Extend Extra and Shadow of the Colossus that will show the relevance...... of a formal definition of game mechanics. Udgivelsesdato: Dec 2008...

In the new digital age, information is available in large quantities. Since information consumes primarily the attention of its recipients, the scarcity of attention is becoming the main limiting factor. In this study, we investigate the impact of advertisement pressure on a cultural market where consumers have a limited attention capacity. A model of competition for attention is developed and investigated analytically and by simulation. Advertisement is found to be much more effective when the attention capacity of agents is extremely scarce. We have observed that the market share of the advertised item improves if dummy items are introduced to the market while the strength of the advertisement is kept constant.

In the new digital age, information is available in large quantities. Since information consumes primarily the attention of its recipients, the scarcity of attention is becoming the main limiting factor. In this study, we investigate the impact of advertisement pressure on a cultural market where consumers have a limited attention capacity. A model of competition for attention is developed and investigated analytically and by simulation. Advertisement is found to be much more effective when the attention capacity of agents is extremely scarce. We have observed that the market share of the advertised item improves if dummy items are introduced to the market while the strength of the advertisement is kept constant.

This article applies the phenomenological model of attention to plant monitoring of environmental stimuli and signal perception. Three complementary definitions of attention as selectivity, modulation and perdurance are explained with reference to plant signaling and behaviors, including foraging, ramet placement and abiotic stress communication. Elements of animal and human attentive attitudes are compared with plant attention at the levels of cognitive focus, context and margin. It is argued that the concept of attention holds the potential of becoming a cornerstone of plant intelligence studies.

Can attention alter the impression of a face? Previous studies showed that attention modulates the appearance of lower-level visual features. For instance, attention can make a simple stimulus appear to have higher contrast than it actually does. We tested whether attention can also alter the perception of a higher-order property-namely, facial attractiveness. We asked participants to judge the relative attractiveness of two faces after summoning their attention to one of the faces using a briefly presented visual cue. Across trials, participants judged the attended face to be more attractive than the same face when it was unattended. This effect was not due to decision or response biases, but rather was due to changes in perceptual processing of the faces. These results show that attention alters perceived facial attractiveness, and broadly demonstrate that attention can influence higher-level perception and may affect people's initial impressions of one another.

The nature of attention is one of the oldest and most central problems in psychology. A huge amount of research has been produced on this subject in the last half century, especially on attention in the visual modality, but a general explanation has remained elusive. Many still view attention...... research as a field that is fundamentally fragmented. This book takes a different perspective and presents a unified theory of visual attention: the TVA model. The TVA model explains the many aspects of visual attention by just two mechanisms for selection of information: filtering and pigeonholing....... These mechanisms are described in a set of simple equations, which allow TVA to mathematically model a large number of classical results in the attention literature. The theory explains psychological and neuroscientific findings by the same equations; TVA is a complete theory of visual attention, linking mind...

After attention has been involuntarily captured by a distractor, how is it reoriented toward a target? One possibility is that attention to the distractor passively fades over time, allowing the target to become attended. Another possibility is that the captured location is actively suppressed so that attention can be directed toward the target location. The present study investigated this issue with event-related potentials (ERPs), focusing on the N2pc component (a neural measure of attentional deployment) and the Pd component (a neural measure of attentional suppression). Observers identified a color-defined target in a search array, which was preceded by a task-irrelevant cue array. When the cue array contained an item that matched the target color, this item captured attention (as measured both behaviorally and with the N2pc component). This capture of attention was followed by active suppression (indexed by the Pd component), and this was then followed by a reorienting of attention toward the target in the search array (indexed by the N2pc component). These findings indicate that the involuntary capture of attention by a distractor is followed by an active suppression process that presumably facilitates the subsequent voluntary orienting of attention to the target.

This paper discusses how legal moralism should be defined. It is argued that legal moralism should be defined as the position that “For any X, it is always a pro tanto reason for justifiably imposing legal regulation on X that X is morally wrong (where “morally wrong” is not conceptually equivalent...... to “harmful”)”. Furthermore, a distinction between six types of legal moralism is made. The six types are grouped according to whether they are concerned with the enforcement of positive or critical morality, and whether they are concerned with criminalising, legally restricting, or refraining from legally...... protecting morally wrong behaviour. This is interesting because not all types of legal moralism are equally vulnerable to the different critiques of legal moralism that have been put forth. Indeed, I show that some interesting types of legal moralism have not been criticised at all....

As science and technology developed, the tools of humans developed from humans’hands, to mechanical and digital technologies. The tools influ-ence almost everything in the humans’world, so does vernacular. The digital vernacular could be understood as using digital technology to vernacular; the digital means technologies. It also could be understood as doing vernacular in a digital way;the digital means data and information, in other words it can be seeking truth from facts. Define digital vernacular is not only what is digital vernacular, but also about how to do the digital vernacular and what kind of attitude we should hold to-ward the digital vernacular. Define digital vernacular as both thinking and doing.

Edited by one of the best-known and most widely respected figures in the field, ""Planning for Information Systems"" is a comprehensive, single source overview of the myriad ideas and processes that are identified with IS planning. While many chapters deal with high level strategic planning, the book gives equal attention to on-the-ground planning issues.Part I, 'Key Concepts of IS Planning', focuses on how IS planning has evolved over the years; business-IS strategic alignment; and the role of dynamic organizational capabilities in leveraging IS competencies. Part II, 'The Organizational IS P

Full Text Available This paper assesses the role of urban experiments for local planning processes through a case-based analysis of the city lab of Maastricht. In conjunction with this, the article offers three contributions, as additional elements. Firstly, the paper develops a set of defining characteristics of city labs as an analytical concept which is relevant for discussions about (collaborative planning. Secondly, it refines the literature on collaborative planning by drawing attention to experimentation and innovation. Thirdly, the paper assesses the potential of city labs to contribute to the innovation of urban governance. The work draws from the literature on experimentation and learning as well as the literature on collaborative urban planning. In the conclusions, we discuss the potential of city labs as vehicles for learning about new urban planning approaches and their limitations as spaces for small-scale experimentation. The paper is based on research for the URB@Exp research project funded by JPI Urban Europe.

In most countries, the lack of explicit health workforce planning has resulted in imbalances that threaten the capacity of healthcare systems to attain their objectives. This has directed attention towards the prospect of developing healthcare systems that are more responsive to the needs and expectations of the population by providing health planners with a systematic method to effectively manage human resources in this sector. This review analyses various approaches to health workforce planning and presents the Six-Step Methodology to Integrated Workforce Planning which highlights essential elements in workforce planning to ensure the quality of services. The purpose, scope and ownership of the approach is defined. Furthermore, developing an action plan for managing a health workforce is emphasised and a reviewing and monitoring process to guide corrective actions is suggested.

Full Text Available In most countries, the lack of explicit health workforce planning has resulted in imbalances that threaten the capacity of healthcare systems to attain their objectives. This has directed attention towards the prospect of developing healthcare systems that are more responsive to the needs and expectations of the population by providing health planners with a systematic method to effectively manage human resources in this sector. This review analyses various approaches to health workforce planning and presents the Six-Step Methodology to Integrated Workforce Planning which highlights essential elements in workforce planning to ensure the quality of services. The purpose, scope and ownership of the approach is defined. Furthermore, developing an action plan for managing a health workforce is emphasised and a reviewing and monitoring process to guide corrective actions is suggested.

Full Text Available This paper assesses the role of urban experiments for local planning processes through a case-based analysis of the city lab of Maastricht. In conjunction with this, the article offers three contributions, as additional elements. Firstly, the paper develops a set of defining characteristics of city labs as an analytical concept which is relevant for discussions about (collaborative planning. Secondly, it refines the literature on collaborative planning by drawing attention to experimentation and innovation. Thirdly, the paper assesses the potential of city labs to contribute to the innovation of urban governance. The work draws from the literature on experimentation and learning as well as the literature on collaborative urban planning. In the conclusions, we discuss the potential of city labs as vehicles for learning about new urban planning approaches and their limitations as spaces for small-scale experimentation. The paper is based on research for the URB@Exp research project funded by JPI Urban Europe.

Despite evolving local food research, there is no consistent definition of “local food.” Various understandings are utilized, which have resulted in a diverse landscape of meaning. The main purpose of this paper is to examine how researchers within the local food systems literature define local...... food, and how these definitions can be used as a starting point to identify a new taxonomy of local food based on three domains of proximity....

Internet addiction is a new behavioral disorder difficult to define, especially when referring to young teenagers who make great use of web-mediated relationships. It's necessary to separate the cases of overt dependency on those in which the abuse of internet seems to have a different value, offering the only way to achieve the possible relationship. Internet is mediating a new way of communicating and thinking, this may favor the onset of clinical phenomena intended to surprise.

For a fixed infinite structure $\\Gamma$ with finite signature $\\tau$, we study the following computational problem: Input are quantifier-free first-order $\\tau$-formulas $\\phi_0,\\phi_1,\\dots,\\phi_n$ that define relations $R_0,R_1,\\dots,R_n$ over $\\Gamma$. The question is whether the relation $R_0$ is primitive positive definable from $R_1,\\ldots,R_n$, i.e., definable by a first-order formula that uses only relation symbols for $R_1, \\dots, R_n$, equality, conjunctions, and existential quantification (disjunction, negation, and universal quantification are forbidden). We show decidability of this problem for all structures $\\Gamma$ that have a first-order definition in an ordered homogeneous structure $\\Delta$ with a finite language whose age is a Ramsey class and determined by finitely many forbidden substructures. Examples for structures $\\Gamma$ with this property are the order of the rationals, the random graph, the homogeneous universal poset, the random tournament, all homogeneous universal $C$-relations...

Software defined network (SDN) is a new network architecture in which the control function is decoupled from the data forwarding plane, that is attracting wide attentions from both research and industry sectors...

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a chronic and invalidating condition, whose negative consequences on psychosocial functioning calls for efficacious treatment plans. Several treatments have been proven to be effective: some parent and children treatment programs, psychostimulants, atomoxetine. Most of these therapeutic options are not easily available to patients and families (psychoeducational programs are rarely used in France). Primary care professionals can help families to access valid information, discuss treatment plans and monitor treatment.

textabstractOrganizational studies emphasizing the role of attention in organizational behavior depart from the idea that organizations, like individuals, have limited capacity to attend to environmental stimuli. The bounded capacity of the organizations to respond to stimuli is conditioned by the l

textabstractOrganizational studies emphasizing the role of attention in organizational behavior depart from the idea that organizations, like individuals, have limited capacity to attend to environmental stimuli. The bounded capacity of the organizations to respond to stimuli is conditioned by the

In response both to national pressures to reduce costs and improve health care access and outcomes and to local pressures to become a top-20 public research university, the University of Kentucky moved toward an integrated clinical enterprise, UK HealthCare, to create a common vision, shared goals, and an effective decision-making process. The leadership formed the vision and then embarked on a comprehensive and coordinated planning process that addressed financial, clinical, academic, and operational issues. The authors describe in depth the strategic planning process and specifically the definition of UK HealthCare's role in its medical marketplace. They began a rigorous process to assess and develop goals for the clinical programs and followed the progress of these programs through meetings driven by data and attended by the organization's senior leadership. They describe their approach to working with rural and community hospitals throughout central, eastern, and southern Kentucky to support the health care infrastructure of the state. They review the early successes of their strategic approach and describe the lessons they learned. The clinical successes have led to academic gains. The experience of UK HealthCare suggests that good business practices and good public policy are synergistic.

The changing content of urban-based family practice needs to be redefined so that appropriate family medicine training programs can be planned to meet the primary care health needs of Canada's urban-based population. Although the core content of family practice is common to both rural and urban areas, each requires specific skills and attitudes dictated by differences in patient characteristics, disease incidence, physician expectations, and professional contexts. A challenge for the future is the development of both rural-based and urban-based streams of family medicine training that will unite rather than divide the profesiion. PMID:21233947

Full Text Available Various new technologies are explored for radio communication toward the 21st century. Among them the technology of "software defined radio" attracts large attention. Software Defined Radio (SDR technology implements some of the functional modules of a radio system in software enabling highly flexible handsets. SDR devices may be reconfigured dynamically via the download of new software modules. Malicious or malfunctioning downloaded software present serious security risks to SDR devices and networks in which they operate. Together with the use of software downloading, future terminals will become a platform to support the deployment of yet unspecified services and applications.

spending) to evaluate the project alternatives. The comparison result can identify the most cost-efficient solution in a long run and therefore reduce the overall costs. This article defines a phase-based framework to guide the railway maintenance and renewal project planning at strategic level...... and compared. A case study is introduced in the article to demonstrate how the framework works to compare timber sleepers and concrete sleepers from strategic planning level. Two Life Cycle Cost oriented policies are discussed to illustrate: high quality track is necessity to improve the cost efficiency......In the railway field, planning the maintenance and renewal strategy from Life Cycle Cost (LCC) perspective gets more and more attentions recent years. The new approach looks at all the costs through the infrastructure life span and use the annuity (continuing payment with a fixed total annual...

In public announcement logic it is assumed that all agents pay attention to the announcement. Weaker observational conditions can be modelled in action model logic. In this work, we propose a version of public announcement logic wherein it is encoded in the states of the epistemic model which...... agents pay attention to the announcement. This logic is called attention-based announcement logic. We give an axiomatization of the logic and prove that complexity of satisfiability is the same as that of public announcement logic, and therefore lower than that of action model logic. An attention......-based announcement can also be described as an action model. We extend our logic by integrating attention change. Finally, we add the notion of common belief to the language, we exploit this to formalize the concept of joint attention, that has been widely discussed in the philosophical and cognitive science...

The ability to sense pain may be considered as a prerequisite for human survival. The experience of pain helps humans to avoid the execution of actions that can seriously endanger their lives; pain is therefore evolutionarily predisposed to interrupt and capture attention. However, this supposed interconnectedness between pain and attention is still sparsely examined. The aim of this dissertation was to gain further insight in this relation between pain and attention, and more specifically th...

We show that ${\\mathbb Z}$ is definable in ${\\mathbb Q}$ by a universal first-order formula in the language of rings. We also present an $\\forall\\exists$-formula for ${\\mathbb Z}$ in ${\\mathbb Q}$ with just one universal quantifier. We exhibit new diophantine subsets of ${\\mathbb Q}$ like the set of non-squares or the complement of the image of the norm map under a quadratic extension. Finally, we show that there is no existential formula for ${\\mathbb Z}$ in ${\\mathbb Q}$, provided one assumes a strong variant of the Bombieri-Lang Conjecture for varieties over ${\\mathbb Q}$ with many ${\\mathbb Q}$-rational points.

Previous research has suggested that the involuntary allocation of spatial attention to salient, irrelevant stimuli (i.e., attentional capture) is prevented when attention is in a focused state (e.g., Yantis & Jonides, 1990). Recent work has suggested that although focused attention may be necessary to prevent attentional capture by irrelevant stimuli, it is not sufficient (e.g., Folk, Leber, & Egeth, 2002). The present experiments provide evidence that attentional engagement, rather than attentional focusing, prevents capture. Observers performed a rapid serial visual presentation task in which they were asked to identify a target letter defined by color. Peripheral distractors that shared the color of the target produced evidence of attentional capture. This effect was completely eliminated, however, when the peripheral distractor was preceded by a central distractor designed to engage attention on the stream. It is concluded that attentional engagement serves to lock out capture by irrelevant, salient stimuli.

A mass of traces of human activities show diverse dynamic patterns. In this paper, we comprehensively investigate the dynamic pattern of human attentiondefined by the quantity of interests on subdisciplines in an online academic communication forum. Both the expansion and exploration of human attention have a power-law scaling relation with browsing actions, of which the exponent is close to that in one-dimension random walk. Furthermore, the memory effect of human attention is characterized by the power-law distributions of both the return interval time and return interval steps, which is reinforced by studying the attention shift that monotonically increase with the interval order between pairs of continuously segmental sequences of expansion. At last, the observing dynamic pattern of human attention in the browsing process is analytically described by a dynamic model whose generic mechanism is analogy to that of human spatial mobility. Thus, our work not only enlarges the research scope of human dynamics,...

The cluster architecture has played an important role in high-end computing for the past 20 years. With the advent of Internet services, big data, and cloud computing, traditional clusters face three challenges: 1) providing flexible system balance among computing, memory, and I/O capabilities;2) reducing resource pooling overheads;and 3) addressing low performance-power eﬃciency. This position paper proposes a software-defined cluster (SDC) architecture to deal with these challenges. The SDC architecture inherits two features of traditional cluster: its architecture is multicomputer and it has loosely-coupled interconnect. SDC provides two new mechanisms: global I/O space (GIO) and hardware-supported native access (HNA) to remote devices. Application software can define a virtual cluster best suited to its needs from resources pools provided by a physical cluster, and traditional cluster ecosystems need no modification. We also discuss a prototype design and implementation of a 32-processor cloud server utilizing the SDC architecture.

Does real time coupling between mental and physical activity early in development have functional significance? To address this question, we examined the habituation of visual attention and the subsequent response to change in two groups of 3-month-olds with different patterns of movement-attention coupling. In suppressors, the typical decrease in…

The authors discuss methodological and theoretical issues in psychological investigations of infant attention, fixation times, habituation, and intelligence. A consensus on how to measure individual differences in habituation has not been reached. The relation between IQ and attention is discussed. (RD)

Full Text Available Paper discuss specific features of internet plan as well as planning as management process in general in the contemporary environment. No need to stress out that marketing plan and marketing planning is core activity in approaching to market. At the same time, there are a lot specific c request in preparing marketing plan comparing to business planning due to marketing plan is an essential part. The importance of internet plan and planning rely on specific features of the internet network but as a part of general corporate as well as marketing strategy.

This paper reviews studies on eye movements in decision making, and compares their observations to theoretical predictions concerning the role of attention in decision making. Four decision theories are examined: rational models, bounded rationality, evidence accumulation, and parallel constraint...... satisfaction models. Although most theories were confirmed with regard to certain predictions, none of the theories adequately accounted for the role of attention during decision making. Several observations emerged concerning the drivers and down-stream effects of attention on choice, suggesting...... that attention processes plays an active role in constructing decisions. So far, decision theories have largely ignored the constructive role of attention by assuming that it is entirely determined by heuristics, or that it consists of stochastic information sampling. The empirical observations reveal...

Studies of human attention dynamics analyses how attention is focused on specific topics, issues or people. In online social media, there are clear signs of exogenous shocks, bursty dynamics, and an exponential or powerlaw lifetime distribution. We here analyse the attention dynamics of traditional media, focussing on co-occurrence of people in newspaper articles. The results are quite different from online social networks and attention. Different regimes seem to be operating at two different time scales. At short time scales we see evidence of bursty dynamics and fast decaying edge lifetimes and attention. This behaviour disappears for longer time scales, and in that regime we find Poissonian dynamics and slower decaying lifetimes. We propose that a cascading Poisson process may take place, with issues arising at a constant rate over a long time scale, and faster dynamics at a shorter time scale.

Software Defined Radio makes wireless communications easier, more efficient, and more reliable. This book bridges the gap between academic research and practical implementation. When beginning a project, practicing engineers, technical managers, and graduate students can save countless hours by considering the concepts presented in these pages. The author covers the myriad options and trade-offs available when selecting an appropriate hardware architecture. As demonstrated here, the choice between hardware- and software-centric architecture can mean the difference between meeting an aggressive schedule and bogging down in endless design iterations. Because of the author’s experience overseeing dozens of failed and successful developments, he is able to present many real-life examples. Some of the key concepts covered are: Choosing the right architecture for the market – laboratory, military, or commercial Hardware platforms – FPGAs, GPPs, specialized and hybrid devices Standardization efforts to ens...

Full Text Available Cyber conflicts represent a new kind of warfare that is technologically developing very rapidly. Such development results in more frequent and more intensive cyber attacks undertaken by states against adversary targets, with a wide range of diverse operations, from information operations to physical destruction of targets. Nevertheless, cyber warfare is waged through the application of the same means, techniques and methods as those used in cyber criminal, terrorism and intelligence activities. Moreover, it has a very specific nature that enables states to covertly initiate attacks against their adversaries. The starting point in defining doctrines, procedures and standards in the area of cyber warfare is determining its true nature. In this paper, a contribution to this effort was made through the analysis of the existing state doctrines and international practice in the area of cyber warfare towards the determination of its nationally acceptable definition.

Time is divided by geologists according to marked shifts in Earth's state. Recent global environmental changes suggest that Earth may have entered a new human-dominated geological epoch, the Anthropocene. Should the Anthropocene - the idea that human activity is a force acting upon the Earth system in ways that mean that Earth will be altered for millions of years - be defined as a geological time-unit at the level of an Epoch? Here we appraise the data to assess such claims, first in terms of changes to the Earth system, with particular focus on very long-lived impacts, as Epochs typically last millions of years. Can Earth really be said to be in transition from one state to another? Secondly, we then consider the formal criteria used to define geological time-units and move forward through time examining whether currently available evidence passes typical geological time-unit evidence thresholds. We suggest two time periods likely fit the criteria (1) the aftermath of the interlinking of the Old and New Worlds, which moved species across continents and ocean basins worldwide, a geologically unprecedented and permanent change, which is also the globally synchronous coolest part of the Little Ice Age (in Earth system terms), and the beginning of global trade and a new socio-economic "world system" (in historical terms), marked as a golden spike by a temporary drop in atmospheric CO2, centred on 1610 CE; and (2) the aftermath of the Second World War, when many global environmental changes accelerated and novel long-lived materials were increasingly manufactured, known as the Great Acceleration (in Earth system terms) and the beginning of the Cold War (in historical terms), marked as a golden spike by the peak in radionuclide fallout in 1964. We finish by noting that the Anthropocene debate is politically loaded, thus transparency in the presentation of evidence is essential if a formal definition of the Anthropocene is to avoid becoming a debate about bias. The

With a number of cheap commercial dry EEG kits available today, it is possible to look at user attention driven scenarios for interaction with the web browser. Using EEG to determine the user's attention level is preferable to using methods such as gaze tracking or time spent on the webpage. In this paper we use the attention level in three different ways. First, as a control mechanism, to control user interface elements such as menus or buttons. Second, to make the web browser responsive to ...

A still understudied area in media research is how people pay attention to news in daily life. To do so, the chapter develops a theoretical framework grounded in news audience research and practice theory. This framework conceptualizes practices as different ways in which attention is directed....... In the concluding discussion, the chapter relates the findings to further perspectives on attention to news specifically and media content more generally. Accordingly, this chapter contributes to cross-media news research by analyzing ways in which people attend to news and how these ways of attending vary across...

Joint attention (JA) initiation is defined in cognitive-developmental psychology as a child's actions that verify or produce simultaneous attending by that child and an adult to some object or event in the environment so that both may experience the object or event together. This paper presents a contingency analysis of gaze shift in JA…

Full Text Available Attention underpins many activities integral to a child's development. However, methodological limitations currently make large-scale assessment of children's attentional skill impractical, costly and lacking in ecological validity. Consequently we developed a measure of 'Visual Motor Attention' (VMA-a construct defined as the ability to sustain and adapt visuomotor behaviour in response to task-relevant visual information. In a series of experiments, we evaluated the capability of our method to measure attentional processes and their contributions in guiding visuomotor behaviour. Experiment 1 established the method's core features (ability to track stimuli moving on a tablet-computer screen with a hand-held stylus and demonstrated its sensitivity to principled manipulations in adults' attentional load. Experiment 2 standardised a format suitable for use with children and showed construct validity by capturing developmental changes in executive attention processes. Experiment 3 tested the hypothesis that children with and without coordination difficulties would show qualitatively different response patterns, finding an interaction between the cognitive and motor factors underpinning responses. Experiment 4 identified associations between VMA performance and existing standardised attention assessments and thereby confirmed convergent validity. These results establish a novel approach to measuring childhood attention that can produce meaningful functional assessments that capture how attention operates in an ecologically valid context (i.e. attention's specific contribution to visuomanual action.

Attention underpins many activities integral to a child's development. However, methodological limitations currently make large-scale assessment of children's attentional skill impractical, costly and lacking in ecological validity. Consequently we developed a measure of 'Visual Motor Attention' (VMA)-a construct defined as the ability to sustain and adapt visuomotor behaviour in response to task-relevant visual information. In a series of experiments, we evaluated the capability of our method to measure attentional processes and their contributions in guiding visuomotor behaviour. Experiment 1 established the method's core features (ability to track stimuli moving on a tablet-computer screen with a hand-held stylus) and demonstrated its sensitivity to principled manipulations in adults' attentional load. Experiment 2 standardised a format suitable for use with children and showed construct validity by capturing developmental changes in executive attention processes. Experiment 3 tested the hypothesis that children with and without coordination difficulties would show qualitatively different response patterns, finding an interaction between the cognitive and motor factors underpinning responses. Experiment 4 identified associations between VMA performance and existing standardised attention assessments and thereby confirmed convergent validity. These results establish a novel approach to measuring childhood attention that can produce meaningful functional assessments that capture how attention operates in an ecologically valid context (i.e. attention's specific contribution to visuomanual action).

... If so, your child may have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Nearly everyone shows some of these ... children. The main features of ADHD are Inattention Hyperactivity Impulsivity No one knows exactly what causes ADHD. ...

Establishing a definition for dietary fibre has historically been a balance between nutrition knowledge and analytical method capabilities. While the most widely accepted physiologically-based definitions have generally been accurate in defining the dietary fibre in foods, scientists and regulators have tended, in practice, to rely on analytical procedures as the definitional basis in fact. As a result, incongruities between theory and practice have resulted in confusion regarding the components that make up dietary fibre. In November 1998 the president of the American Association of Cereal Chemists (AACC) appointed an expert scientific review committee and charged it with the task of reviewing and, if necessary, updating the definition of dietary fibre. The committee was further charged with assessing the state of analytical methodology and making recommendations relevant to the updated definition. After due deliberation, an updated definition of dietary fibre was delivered to the AACC Board of Directors for consideration and adoption (Anon, 2000; Jones 2000b). The updated definition includes the same food components as the historical working definition used for approximately 30 years (a very important point, considering that the majority of the research of the past 30 years delineating the positive health effects of dietary fibre is based on that working definition). However, the updated definition more clearly delineates the make-up of dietary fibre and its physiological functionality. As a result, relatively few changes will be necessary in analytical methodology. Current methodologies, in particular AACC-approved method of analysis 32-05 (Grami, 2000), Association of Official Analytical Chemists' official method of analysis 985.29 (Horwitz, 2000a) or AACC 32-07 (Grami, 2000) Association of Official Analytical Chemists 991.43 (Horwitz, 2000a) will continue to be sufficient and used for most foods. A small number of additional methods will be necessary to

While traces and techniques of power and contestation around the understanding and production of spaces are clearly recognized in the sociological and planning research literature, there has been little rigorous attention to how socio-spatial inequality is put at stake in strategic mobilization...... around particular spatial imaginaries. In an analysis of the German Spatial Planning Report, the paper examines how inequalities are represented in relation to space and movement in spatial strategy. The analysis shows how, in the report, the spatial dimension of the social is represented...... as a territorial container, in which the social merges into regional and national entities. Correspondingly, movement is only interpreted as a derived demand, ignoring its integrative aspect as precondition of participation and part of network capital. On the other hand, the spatiality of the economy...

In the present study, we investigated the distribution of attention before antisaccades. We used a dual task paradigm, in which participants made prosaccades or antisaccades and discriminated the orientation of a visual probe shown at the saccade goal, the visual cue location (antisaccade condition), or a neutral location. Moreover, participants indicated whether they had made a correct antisaccade or an erroneous prosaccade. We observed that, while spatial attention in the prosaccade task was allocated only to the saccade goal, attention in the antisaccade task was allocated both to the cued location and to the antisaccade goal. This suggests parallel attentional selection of the cued and antisaccade locations. We further observed that in error trials--in which participants made an incorrect prosaccade instead of an antisaccade--spatial attention was biased towards the prosaccade goal. These erroneous prosaccades were mostly unnoticed and were often followed by corrective antisaccades with very short latencies (parallel programming of the reflexive prosaccade to the cue and the antisaccade to the intended location. Taken together, our results suggest that attention allocation and saccade goal selection in the antisaccade task are mediated by a common competitive process.

Full Text Available The present article develops an immanent critique of the attention economy as a power apparatus. In particular, it contends that what Foucault (2009 defined as the passage from disciplinary societies to societies of security entails a transformation of the main function of human attention: whereas in disciplinary societies attention (or the gaze was aimed at imposing continuous surveillance on each individual, societies of security conceive the gaze of each subject as a source of data which allows constructing a new object of power, i.e., the population. To illustrate this, the present article focuses on the specific case of the attention economy and the notions of ‘dataveillance’ and ‘Big Data’.

We review and relate two literatures on the development of attention in children: one concerning flexible attention switching and the other concerning selective attention. The first is a growing literature on preschool children's performances in an attention-switching task indicating that children become more flexible in their attentional control…

While CON–DMN anti-correlation is associated with improved attention in ADHD, other circuitry supports improved attention in TD children. Greater CON–DMN anti-correlation supported better attentional control in children with ADHD, but worse attentional control in TD children. On the other hand, greater DMN–occipital anti-correlation supported better attentional control in TD children.

We review and relate two literatures on the development of attention in children: one concerning flexible attention switching and the other concerning selective attention. The first is a growing literature on preschool children's performances in an attention-switching task indicating that children become more flexible in their attentional control…

The Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota, recently set forth a directive to develop a Mayo Emergency Incident Command System (MEICS) plan to respond to major disasters. The MEICS plan that was developed interfaces with national response plans to ensure effective communication and coordination between our institution and local, state, and federal agencies to establish a common language and communication structure. The MEICS plan addresses multiple aspects of dealing with resource needs during a crisis, including the need for blood and transfusion medicine services. The MEICS plan was developed to supplement our current local emergency preparedness procedures and provide a mechanism for responding to the escalating severity of an emergency to deal with situations of a magnitude that is outside the normal experience. A plan was developed to interface the existing Transfusion Medicine disaster plan standard operating procedures (SOP) with the institutional and Department of Laboratory Medicine (DLMP) MEICS plans. The first step in developing this interface was defining MEICS. Other major steps were defining the chain of command, developing a method for visually indicating who is "in charge," planning communication, defining the actions to be taken, assessing resource needs, developing flowcharts and updating SOPs, and developing a blood rationing team to deal with anticipated blood shortages. Several key features of the interface and updated disaster plan that were developed are calling trees for response personnel, plans for relocating leadership to alternative command centers, and action sheets to assist with resource assessment. The action sheets also provide documentation of key actions by response personnel.

A theory is sought that is general enough to help the researcher deal with a wide range of situations involving pilot mental stress. A limited capacity theory of attention forms the basis for the theory. Mental workload is then defined as an intervening variable, similar to attention, that modulates or indexes the tuning between the demands of the environment and the capacity of the organism. Two methods for measuring pilot mental workload are endorsed: (1) objective measures based on secondary tasks; and (2) psychophysiological measures, which have not yet been perfected but which will become more useful as theoretical models are refined. Secondary-task research is illustrated by simulator studies in which flying performance has been shown not to be adversely affected by adding a complex choice-reaction secondary task.

In facing future developments in health care, scenario planning offers a complementary approach to traditional strategic planning. Whereas traditional strategic planning typically consists of predicting the future at a single point on a chosen time horizon and mapping the preferred plans to address such a future, scenario planning creates stories about multiple likely potential futures on a given time horizon and maps the preferred plans to address the multiple described potential futures. Each scenario is purposefully different and specifically not a consensus worst-case, average, or best-case forecast; nor is scenario planning a process in probabilistic prediction. Scenario planning focuses on high-impact, uncertain driving forces that in the authors' example affect the field of radiology. Uncertainty is the key concept as these forces are mapped onto axes of uncertainty, the poles of which have opposed effects on radiology. One chosen axis was "market focus," with poles of centralized health care (government control) vs a decentralized private market. Another axis was "radiology's business model," with one pole being a unified, single specialty vs a splintered, disaggregated subspecialty. The third axis was "technology and science," with one pole representing technology enabling to radiology vs technology threatening to radiology. Selected poles of these axes were then combined to create 3 scenarios. One scenario, termed "entrepreneurialism," consisted of a decentralized private market, a disaggregated business model, and threatening technology and science. A second scenario, termed "socialized medicine," had a centralized market focus, a unified specialty business model, and enabling technology and science. A third scenario, termed "freefall," had a centralized market focus, a disaggregated business model, and threatening technology and science. These scenarios provide a range of futures that ultimately allow the identification of defined "signposts" that can

appear along the planning process. In this context, technical literature about optimization techniques applied to microgrid planning have been reviewed and the guidelines for innovative planning methodologies focused on economic feasibility can be defined. Finally, some trending techniques and new...

Attention is crucial for visual perception because it allows the visual system to effectively use its limited resources by selecting behaviorally and cognitively relevant stimuli from the large amount of information impinging on the eyes. Reflexive, stimulus-driven attention is essential for successful interactions with the environment because it can, for example, speed up responses to life-threatening events. It is commonly believed that exogenous attention operates in the retinotopic coordinates of the early visual system. Here, using a novel experimental paradigm [1], we show that a nonretinotopic cue improves both accuracy and reaction times in a visual search task. Furthermore, the influence of the cue is limited both in space and time, a characteristic typical of exogenous cueing. These and other recent findings show that many more aspects of vision are processed nonretinotopically than previously thought.

Full Text Available This position paper argues how there has to be much more to smart city learning than just wayshowing, and something better as augmented reality than covering the world with instructions. Attention has become something for many people to know better in an age of information superabundance. Embodied cognition explains how the work-ings of attention are not solely a foreground task, as if attention is something to pay. As digital media appear in ever more formats and contexts, their hybrids with physical form increasing influence how habitual engagement with persistent situations creates learning. Ambient information can just add to the distraction by multitasking, or it can support more favorable processes of shifting among different kinds of information with a particular intent. As one word for this latter process, foraging deserves more consideration in smart city learning

of technology and innovation continues to accelerate. Sponsorship, strategic planning, and oversight of operational resilience are the most crucial...identify shortfalls across these defined activities, make incremental improvements, and measure improvement against a defined, accepted maturity scale. The...the granu- larity needs for organizations committed to making incremental improvements in governing oper- ational resilience. To achieve a more

According to the current context of China’s new urbanization and urban and rural transformation,this paper defines incremental planning,stock-based planning,and reduction planning.It further discusses the socio-economic foundation of incremental planning,the transformation of incremental planning to stock-based planning,and the emergence of reduction planning,as well as the characteristics of these three types of urban planning.Based on that,it finds that incremental planning is determined by China’s unique urban growth pattern,and that the change of the urban growth mode leads to a transformation of urban planning.In addition,reduction planning can effectively cope with urban decline.After over 30 years of rapid economic development,more and more cities in China are approaching the bottleneck of growth.Therefore,the transformation of urban planning is unavoidable and will definitely become an important topic in planning circles.

epidemiology of ADHD and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity ... effective healthcare policy further studies are needed to define the magnitude and burden of ADHD and other childhood ... carried out among sub-Saharan African children in primary.

Managerial attention affects organizational strategies and the resulting consequences. In the international business context, it is noted that how much attention managers give to the international marketplace, i.e., international attention, has profound implications for large global companies’

Patients with spatial neglect fail to attend to stimuli in the contralesional visual world. He et al. used fMRI to reveal how disrupted functional connectivity, independent of task-evoked activation, in ventral and dorsal attentional networks may explain behavioral impairment in neglect and recovery from acute neglect.

The ability to sense pain may be considered as a prerequisite for human survival. The experience of pain helps humans to avoid the execution of actions that can seriously endanger their lives; pain is therefore evolutionarily predisposed to interrupt and capture attention. However, this supposed int

This article aims to examine the interrelationship between attention and distraction in the reception of video installation art, a genre which is commonly associated with "immersion" and an intensified feeling of presence in the discourses on new media art and installation art. This tends to veil...

In the present review, we address the relationship between attention and visual stability. Even though with each eye, head and body movement the retinal image changes dramatically, we perceive the world as stable and are able to perform visually guided actions. However, visual stability is not as co

The ability to sense pain may be considered as a prerequisite for human survival. The experience of pain helps humans to avoid the execution of actions that can seriously endanger their lives; pain is therefore evolutionarily predisposed to interrupt and capture attention. However, this supposed

房地产前期定位策划作为房地产策划的核心内容之一,在理论和实践中都得到了一定的发展.目前,随着房地产市场从扩张型向精细型转变过程中,对成本控制的作用越来越明显,本文在理论研究的基础上,对重视项目前期定位策划的成本进行了研究.%Location planning of real estate in the earlier stage as one of the core contents of a real estate planning has developed in both theory and practice. At present, along with the change of the real estate market from extensive to intensive, its role in cost control is more and more apparent. Based on theoretical research, this paper studies about paying attention to the cost of pre-project location planning.

A guide to developing a college marketing plandefines key marketing terms, outlines the development of a plan (including institutional analysis, market research, strategy formation and execution, and program evaluation), and provides a list of important principles with which to operate a program. (MSE)

A guide to developing a college marketing plandefines key marketing terms, outlines the development of a plan (including institutional analysis, market research, strategy formation and execution, and program evaluation), and provides a list of important principles with which to operate a program. (MSE)

This documents describes the overall development plan of the EMI Registry product, the plan focuses on the realisation of the EMI Registry specification as defined in the document. It is understood that during the course of the development phase the specification will likely evolve and the changes will be fed into the specification document.

Selective attention was studied in displays containing singletons popping out for their odd form or color. The target was defined as the form-singleton, the distractor as the color-singleton. The task was to discriminate the length of a longer line inside the target. Target-distractor similarity was controlled using a threshold measurement as dependent variable in experiments in which distractor presence vs absence, bottom-up vs top-down selection (through knowledge of target features), and target-distractor distance were manipulated. The results in the bottom-up condition showed that length threshold was elevated when a distractor was present and that this elevation progressively increased as the number of distractors was increased from one to two. This set-size effect was not accounted by the hypothesis that selective attention intervenes only at the stage of decision before response. Selective attention produced a suppressive surround in which discriminability of neighboring objects was strongly reduced, and a larger surround in which discriminability was reduced by an approximately constant amount. Different results were found in the top-down condition in which target discriminability was unaffected by distractor presence and no effect of target-distractor distance was found. On the other hand, response times in both bottom-up and top-down conditions were slower the shorter the target-distractor distance was. On the basis of the experimental results, selective attention is a parallel process of spatial filtering at an intermediate processing level operating after objects have been segmented. This filtering stage explores high level interactions between objects taking control on combinatorial explosion by operating over only a limited spatial extent: it picks out a selected object and inhibits the neighboring objects; then, non-selected objects are suppressed across the overall image. When no feature-based selection is available in the current behavior, this

Although successful visually guided action begins with sensory processes and ends with motor control, the intervening processes related to the appropriate selection of information for processing are especially critical because of the brain's limited capacity to handle information. Three important mechanisms--attention, emotion and motivation--contribute to the prioritization and selection of information. In this chapter, the interplay between these systems is discussed with emphasis placed on interactions between attention (or immediate task relevance of stimuli) and emotion (or affective evaluation of stimuli), and between attention and motivation (or the predicted value of stimuli). Although numerous studies have shown that emotional stimuli modulate mechanisms of selective attention in humans, little work has been directed at exploring whether such interactions can be reciprocal, that is, whether attention can influence emotional response. Recent work on this question (showing that distracting information is typically devalued upon later encounters) is reviewed in the first half of the chapter. In the second half, some recent experiments exploring how prior value-prediction learning (i.e., learning to associate potential outcomes, good or bad, with specific stimuli) plays a role in visual selection and conscious perception. The results indicate that some aspects of motivation act on selection independently of traditionally definedattention and other aspects interact with it.

David Marr famously defined vision as "knowing what is where by seeing". In the framework described here, attention is the inference process that solves the visual recognition problem of what is where. The theory proposes a computational role for attention and leads to a model that performs well in recognition tasks and that predicts some of the main properties of attention at the level of psychophysics and physiology. We propose an algorithmic implementation a Bayesian network that can be mapped into the basic functional anatomy of attention involving the ventral stream and the dorsal stream. This description integrates bottom-up, feature-based as well as spatial (context based) attentional mechanisms. We show that the Bayesian model predicts well human eye fixations (considered as a proxy for shifts of attention) in natural scenes, and can improve accuracy in object recognition tasks involving cluttered real world images. In both cases, we found that the proposed model can predict human performance better than existing bottom-up and top-down computational models.

Market-oriented strategic planning is the process of defining and maintaining a viable relationship between objectives, training of personnel and resources of an organization, on the one hand and market conditions, on the other hand. Strategic marketing planning is an integral part of the strategic planning process of the organization. For successful marketing organization to obtain a competitive advantage, but also to measure the effectiveness of marketing actions the company is required to ...

Market-oriented strategic planning is the process of defining and maintaining a viable relationship between objectives, training of personnel and resources of an organization, on the one hand and market conditions, on the other hand. Strategic marketing planning is an integral part of the strategic planning process of the organization. For successful marketing organization to obtain a competitive advantage, but also to measure the effectiveness of marketing actions the company is required to ...

We review and relate two literatures on the development of attention in children: one concerning flexible attention switching and the other concerning selective attention. The first is a growing literature on preschool children’s performances in an attention switching task indicating that children become more flexible in their attentional control during the preschool years. The second literature encompasses a large and robust set of phenomena for the same developmental period that indicate a ...

Full Text Available Worldwide increasing attention to energy consumption and associated environmental impacts thereof has resulted in a critical attitude towards energy usage of building. Increasing costs of energy and dependence on energy service providers add...

Psychology Technical Report, August, 1977. It Attention 50 References Atkinson , R.C., & Shiffrin , R.M. Human memory : A proposed system and its control...referred to as a continuous paired assoc- iates task. The present form was developed by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968), who used it to test their buffer...They found that digit memori - zation Interfered with sentence comprehension. Baddeley and Hitch’s inter- pretation was that the two tasks competed for

中国城市化正在进入加速发展时期,城市人口和经济均具有向东部沿海进一步集聚的趋势,城市群和巨型城市区应该是"十二五"期间国家未来城市化空间发育的重要形式.根据我国巨型城市化空间现象,建议"十二五"期间注重巨型城市群发展问题.%China is entering a period of accelerated development of urbanization. Urban population and urban economy have the tendency to further gather at the east coast area. This paper argues that urban agglomerations and mega-city areas should be the important spatial forms of China's urbanization development. Based on the space phenomena of China's urban agglomerations,it proposes focusing on the development of megaurban agglomerations during the 12th Five-Year Plan period.

Full Text Available The goal of this paper is to explain the origin and development of strategic spatial planning, to show complex features and highlight the differences and/or advantages over traditional, physical spatial planning. Strategic spatial planning is seen as one of approaches in legally definedplanning documents, and throughout the display of properties of sectoral national strategies, as well as issues of strategic planning at the local level in Serbia. The strategic approach is clearly recognized at the national and sub-national level of spatial planning in European countries and in our country. It has been confirmed by the goals outlined in documents of the European Union and Serbia that promote the grounds of territorial cohesion and strategic integrated planning, emphasizing cooperation and the principles of sustainable spatial development. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 176017

Genetic studies have been hampered by the lack of a gold standard to diagnose asthma. The complex nature of asthma makes it more difficult to identify asthma genes. Therefore, approaches to define phenotypes, which have been successful in other genetically complex diseases, may be applied to define

Genetic studies have been hampered by the lack of a gold standard to diagnose asthma. The complex nature of asthma makes it more difficult to identify asthma genes. Therefore, approaches to define phenotypes, which have been successful in other genetically complex diseases, may be applied to define

Bram Stoker’s seminal horror novel Dracula (1897) has been subjected to a vast number of different critical readings, many of which are deeply flawed, e.g. by proceeding from defunct psychological theories. Incorporating recent advances in evolutionary social science, I offer a biocultural reading...... of Dracula to account for the novel’s impact and resilience. Dracula connected squarely with late-Victorian anxieties, but the novel also appeals to trans-historical adaptive dispositions. I analyze Stoker’s use of narrative strategies to grab and sustain attention, and Count Dracula as a supercharged...

Full Text Available Neurofibromatosis type VI, a disease characterized by the presence of café-au-lait spots withoutthe presence of neurofibromas typically present in neurofibromatosis, as well as cognitivefunction and speech problems, often shows neurological involvement. We describe a case of a14-year-old child who has speech problems and isolated cafè-au-lait macules. We performedan IQ test on him and he scored 70 points. His problems started when he was approximately 5years old (school age. He was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder syndrome withouthyperactivity after neuropsychiatric investigation. We reported this case to improve recognitionof NF VI in children who have cognitive function problems.

Full Text Available Abstract Background Current efforts to study the genetics of higher functions have been lacking appropriate phenotypes to describe cognition. One of the problems is that many cognitive concepts for which there is a single word (e.g. attention have been shown to be related to several anatomical networks. Recently we have developed an Attention Network Test (ANT that provides a separate measure for each of three anatomically definedattention networks. In this small scale study, we ran 26 pairs of MZ and DZ twins in an effort to determine if any of these networks show sufficient evidence of heritability to warrant further exploration of their genetic basis. Results The efficiency of the executive attention network, that mediates stimulus and response conflict, shows sufficient heritability to warrant further study. Alerting and overall reaction time show some evidence for heritability and in our study the orienting network shows no evidence of heritability. Conclusions These results suggest that genetic variation contributes to normal individual differences in higher order executive attention involving dopamine rich frontal areas including the anterior cingulate. At least the executive portion of the ANT may serve as a valid endophenotype for larger twin studies and subsequent molecular genetic analysis in normal subject populations.

The exponential growth in the number of scientific papers makes it increasingly difficult for researchers to keep track of all the publications relevant to their work. Consequently, the attention that can be devoted to individual papers, measured by their citation counts, is bound to decay rapidly. In this work we make a thorough study of the life-cycle of papers in different disciplines. Typically, the citation rate of a paper increases up to a few years after its publication, reaches a peak and then decreases rapidly. This decay can be described by an exponential or a power law behavior, as in ultradiffusive processes, with exponential fitting better than power law for the majority of cases. The decay is also becoming faster over the years, signaling that nowadays papers are forgotten more quickly. However, when time is counted in terms of the number of published papers, the rate of decay of citations is fairly independent of the period considered. This indicates that the attention of scholars depends on th...

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children has been associated with attentional and executive problems, but also with socioemotional difficulties possibly associated with deficits in Theory of Mind (ToM). Socioemotional problems in ADHD are associated with more negative prognoses, notably interpersonal, educational problems, and an increased risk of developing other psychiatric disorders that emphasize the need to clarify the nature of their ToM deficits. In this study, we hypothesized that ToM dysfunction in children with ADHD is largely attributable to their attentional and/or executive deficits. Thirty-one children with ADHD (8-12 years, IQ > 85) and 31 typically developing (TD) children were assessed using executive functions (inhibition, planning, and flexibility) and attentional tasks, as well as two advanced ToM tasks (Reading the Mind in the Eyes and Faux Pas) involving different levels of executive control. Children with ADHD performed more poorly than TD children in attentional, executive function, and ToM tasks. Linear regression analyses conducted in the ADHD group indicated that inhibition scores predicted performance on the "Faux Pas" task the best, while attention scores were the best for predicting performance on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes task. When controlled for inhibition and attentional variables, ToM performance in children with ADHD was actually similar to TD children. Contrarily, controlling for ToM scores did not normalize performance for inhibition and attentional tasks in children with ADHD. This unidirectional relationship suggests that deficits in the EF and attentional domains are responsible for ToM deficits in ADHD, which therefore may contribute to their socioemotional difficulties.

The interest group concept is defined in many different ways in the existing literature and a range of different classification schemes are employed. This complicates comparisons between different studies and their findings. One of the important tasks faced by interest group scholars engaged...... in large-N studies is therefore to define the concept of an interest group and to determine which classification scheme to use for different group types. After reviewing the existing literature, this article sets out to compare different approaches to defining and classifying interest groups with a sample...

Full Text Available Multisensory integration has been traditionally thought to rely on a restricted set of multisensory brain areas, and to occur automatically and pre-attentively. More recently, it has become evident that multisensory interactions can be found almost everywhere in the brain, including areas involved in attention control and areas modulated by attention. In a series of fMRI experiments, we manipulated concurrently the position of multisensory stimuli and the distribution of spatial attention. This enabled us to highlight the role of high-order fronto-parietal areas, as well as sensory-specific occipital cortex, for multisensory processing and spatial attention control. We found that specific task constraints regarding the nature of attentional deployment (endogenous vs. exogenous, the spatial relationship between stimulus position and attended location, and attentional load shape the interplay between attention and multisensory processing. We suggest that multisensory integration acts as a saliency-defining process that can interact with attentional control beyond any within-modality mechanism. We propose that an anatomically-distributed, but functionally-integrated, representation of space makes use of multisensory interactions to help attention selecting relevant spatial locations. Stimuli at the attended location undergo enhanced processing, including boosting of multisensory signals there. In this perspective, attention and multisensory integration operate in an interactive manner jointly determining the activity of a wide-spread network that includes high-order fronto-parietal regions and sensory-specific areas.

This research provides experimental evidence for cultural influence on one of the most basic elements of emotional processing: attention to positive versus negative stimuli. To this end, we focused on Russian culture, which is characterized by brooding and melancholy. In Study 1, Russians spent significantly more time looking at negative than positive pictures, whereas Americans did not show this tendency. In Study 2, Russian Latvians were randomly primed with symbols of each culture, after which we measured the speed of recognition for positive versus negative trait words. Biculturals were significantly faster in recognizing negative words (as compared with baseline) when primed with Russian versus Latvian cultural symbols. Greater identification with Russian culture facilitated this effect. We provide a theoretical discussion of mental processes underlying cultural differences in emotion research.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common behavioral disorder in children. It is characterized by motor hyperactivity, impulsivity and inattention inappropriate for the age. Approximately 5-10 % of school age children are diagnosed to have ADHD. The affected children show significant impairment in social behavior and academic performance. The DSM-5 criteria are useful in diagnosing three subtypes of ADHD based on presence of symptoms described in 3 domains viz ., inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. Co-morbidities like specific learning disability, anxiety disorder, oppositional defiant disorder are commonly associated with ADHD.Education of parents and teachers, behavioral therapy and medication are main components of management. Methylphenidate and Atomoxetine are effective in controlling symptoms of ADHD in most children. Research studies estimated that 30-60 % of children continue to show symptoms of ADHD in adulthood. The general practitioner can play an important role in early diagnosis, appropriate assessment and guiding parents for management of children with ADHD.

Full Text Available Theoretical approaches to elections defining develop the nature, essence and content of elections, help to determine their place and a role as one of the major national law institutions in democratic system.

Attentional dyslexia is a reading deficit in which letters migrate between neighboring words, but are correctly identified and keep their correct relative position within the word. Thus, for example, fig tree can be read as fig free or even tie free. This study reports on 10 Hebrew-speaking individuals with developmental attentional dyslexia and explores in detail the characteristics of their between-word errors. Each participant read 2290 words, presented in word pairs: 845 horizontally presented word pairs, 240 vertically presented word pairs, and 60 nonword pairs. The main results are that almost all migrations preserve the relative position of the migrating letter within the word, indicating that the between-word position can be impaired while the within-word position encoding remains intact. This result is also supported by the finding that the participants did not make many letter position errors within words. Further analyses indicated that more errors occur in longer words, that most migrations occur in final letters (which are the leftmost letters in Hebrew), and that letters migrate both horizontally and vertically, and more frequently from the first to the second word in horizontal presentation. More migrations occurred when the result of migration was an existing word. Similarity between words in a pair did not increase error rates, and more migrations occurred when the words shared fewer letters. The between-word errors included the classic errors of migration of a letter between words, but also omission of one instance of a letter that appeared in the same position in the two words, an error that constituted a considerable percentage of the between-word errors, and intrusion of a letter from one word to the corresponding position in the neighboring word without erasing the original letter in the same position.

The paper describes the evolution of the concept of modularity in a historical perspective. The main reasons for modularity are: create variety, utilize similarities, and reduce complexity. The paper defines the terms: Module, modularity, and modularization.......The paper describes the evolution of the concept of modularity in a historical perspective. The main reasons for modularity are: create variety, utilize similarities, and reduce complexity. The paper defines the terms: Module, modularity, and modularization....

Full Text Available Religious terrorism is typically characterised as acts of unrestrained, irrational and indiscriminant violence, thus offering few if any policy options for counterterrorism measures. This assumption about religious terrorism stems from two challenges in the literature: disproportionate attention to apocalyptic terrorism, and a lack of distinction between religious terrorism and its secular counterpart. This article, therefore, aims to do four things: define and differentiate religiously motivated terrorism from traditional terrorism; investigate three goals of religious terrorism (fomenting the apocalypse, creating a religious government, and establishing a religiously pure state; consider the role of leadership and target selection of religious terrorists; and, finally, suggest a range of counterterrorism strategies based on these observations.

The professional book ,, Space planning "processed chapters on: space, concept and definition of space, space as a system, spatial economics, economic essence of space, space planning, social determinants of spatial planning, spatial planning as a process, factors development and elements in spatial planning, methodology, components and content of spatial planning stages and types of preparation of spatial planning, spatial planning and industrialization, industrialization, urbanization and s...

The professional book ,, Space planning "processed chapters on: space, concept and definition of space, space as a system, spatial economics, economic essence of space, space planning, social determinants of spatial planning, spatial planning as a process, factors development and elements in spatial planning, methodology, components and content of spatial planning stages and types of preparation of spatial planning, spatial planning and industrialization, industrialization, urbanization and s...

Full Text Available Chewing is crushing food not only to aid swallowing and digestion, but also to help stress relief and regulate cognitive function, especially in attention. It is well known that chewing gum is used for sleepiness prevention during work, learning, and driving, suggesting a link between chewing and sustained attention. We hypothesized that chewing elevates attention and/or alertness, leading to improvements in cognitive performance. We carried out a systematic review of the PubMed database. We inspected the attributes of effects on attention in studies investigating the effects of chewing on attention or alertness conducted with pre-post design in healthy subjects, except elderly. We identified 151 references, 22 of which were included: 14 (64% showed positive attributes of effects on attention, 1 (5% showed negative attributes of effects on attention, 5 (23% showed both positive and negative attributes of effects on attention, and 2 (9% showed no significant attributes of effects on attention. Thus, positive attributes of effects of chewing on attention, especially on sustained attention, were shown in over half of the reports. These effects also appeared with improvement in mood and stress relief and were influenced by time-on-task effect. Further studies are needed, but chewing could be useful for modifying cognitive function.

Chewing is crushing food not only to aid swallowing and digestion, but also to help stress relief and regulate cognitive function, especially in attention. It is well known that chewing gum is used for sleepiness prevention during work, learning, and driving, suggesting a link between chewing and sustained attention. We hypothesized that chewing elevates attention and/or alertness, leading to improvements in cognitive performance. We carried out a systematic review of the PubMed database. We inspected the attributes of effects on attention in studies investigating the effects of chewing on attention or alertness conducted with pre-post design in healthy subjects, except elderly. We identified 151 references, 22 of which were included: 14 (64%) showed positive attributes of effects on attention, 1 (5%) showed negative attributes of effects on attention, 5 (23%) showed both positive and negative attributes of effects on attention, and 2 (9%) showed no significant attributes of effects on attention. Thus, positive attributes of effects of chewing on attention, especially on sustained attention, were shown in over half of the reports. These effects also appeared with improvement in mood and stress relief and were influenced by time-on-task effect. Further studies are needed, but chewing could be useful for modifying cognitive function.

A method for production planning in a repetitive manufacturing system which allows for estimating the possibility of processing work orders in due time is presented. The difference between two approaches are presented; the first one one-piece flow elaborated in Toyota and the second one elaborated by authors that consists in defining sufficient conditions to filter all solutions and providing a set of admissible solutions for both the client and the producer. In the paper attention is focused on the buffer allocation. Illustrative examples are presented.

Agricultural work submits to high risks for safety and health. In 2009, in execution of "workplace health protection pact" (DPCM 17.12.2007), has been defined the National Plan for prevention in agriculture and forestry, whose first three-year program ended in 2012. Goals were: to Systematize and to standardize direction and control activity, defining the number of factories to control, in most italian regions, for high and ubiquitous risks applying homogeneous standards, spending special attention to risks of fatal and serious injury; to develop agricultural machinery trade control, for new and second-hand machinery, for normalizing the whole fleet; to contribute to monitoring of risk factors and injury dynamics, for a better definition of prevention policies; to increase the knowledge of public health agency officers; to identify and to promote technical solutions, helping to define, in proper way, good practices for complex problems; to promote coordination between economic develop policies and prevention policies for agriculture, breeding and forestry, paying attention also to financial helps. The plan, divided in regional plans, obtained most of defined goals and allowed to build a permanent interregional net of referents and expert officers. Next years perspective is to enhance in developing the faced themes and objectives.

Ways in which planning can be enhanced across organizational levels within higher education institutions are outlined, and examples of institutional planning are analyzed from centralized/decentralized perspectives. Generalizations about planning are drawn with particular attention to ways in which effective human planning behavior can be…

Based on Posner's (1994) model of attentional functions, the relationship between age and personal proneness to attention-related errors while driving and the functioning of the 3 attentional networks were explored by means of attentional behavioral measures and self-report data. A sample of 55 drivers was drawn from the general population of Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Attention Network Test for Interactions (ANTI) (Callejas et al. 2004) task was used to obtain behavioral measures of the attentional networks, and we used the Attention-Related Driving Error Scale (ARDES) (Ledesma et al. 2010) questionnaire to obtain a self-report measure of attention-related driving errors. Drivers reporting the greatest propensity to experience attention-related errors showed an overall slowdown in performance, less endogenous preparation for high = priority warning signs, and a better response to conflict in the presence of valid cues than drivers less prone to attention-related errors while driving. Older participants showed a slowdown in performance, less endogenous preparation for high-priority warning signs, and worse cognitive control when solving conflict in comparison with younger drivers. We suggest that each group variable, attention-related error proneness and age, shows a particular combination of attentional network functioning that implies different ways of being distracted, which have different practical implications for safe driving. It can be inferred that drivers who are more prone to commit attentional errors while driving run less risk in situations in which they can deal with response conflict in the presence of valid cues because of the particular way in which their attentional networks are combined when a valid cue is present, could serve to compensate, with a better response conflict, their general slowdown and less endogenous preparedness for high-priority signs. It can be inferred that older drivers might show a reduction of the general

with the MAGNET Beyond system, as well as the core concepts: Personal Network, Personal Network-Federation, Service Discovery, User Profile Management, Personal Network Management, Privacy and Security and Context Awareness. The overall plans for the final usability evaluation are documented based on the present...... status of the pilot services. The evaluation will be conducted on two pilot services, that are being implemented - the Lifestyle companion and the Icebreaker. The plan of the evaluation is to carry out combinations of different types of user evaluation methods. These are user panel workshops, situated...

Adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) show attentional dysfunction such as distractibility and mind-wandering, especially in lengthy tasks. However, fundamentals of dysfunction are ambiguous and relationships of neuropsychological test parameters with self-report measures of AD

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common childhood psychiatric disorders and can persist into the adulthood. ADHD has important social, academic and occupational consequences. ADHD diagnosis is based on the fulfillment of several clinical criteria, which can vary depending on the diagnostic system used. The clinical presentation can show great between-patient variability and it has been related to a dysfunction in the fronto-striatal and meso-limbic circuits. Recent investigations support a model in which multiple genetic and environmental factors interact to create a neurobiological susceptibility to develop the disorder. However, no clear causal association has yet been identified. Although multimodal treatment including both pharmacological and psychosocial interventions is usually recommended, no convincing evidence exists to support this recommendation. Pharmacological treatment has fundamentally shown to improve ADHD symptoms in the short term, while efficacy data for psychosocial interventions are scarce and inconsistent. Yet, drug treatment is increasingly popular and the last 2 decades have witnessed a sharp increase in the prescription of anti-ADHD medications coinciding with the marketing of new drugs to treat ADHD.

Full Text Available In view of the technical and commercial boundary conditions for software-defined radio (SDR, it is suggestive to reconsider the concept anew from an unconventional point of view. The organizational principles of signal processing (rather than the signal processing algorithms themselves are the main focus of this work on modular software-defined radio. Modularity and flexibility are just two key characteristics of the SDR environment which extend smoothly into the modeling of hardware and software. In particular, the proposed model of signal processing software includes irregular, connected, directed, acyclic graphs with random node weights and random edges. Several approaches for mapping such software to a given hardware are discussed. Taking into account previous findings as well as new results from system simulations presented here, the paper finally concludes with the utility of pipelining as a general design guideline for modular software-defined radio.

This review focuses on covert attention and how it alters early vision. I explain why attention is considered a selective process, the constructs of covert attention, spatial endogenous and exogenous attention, and feature-based attention...

Attention can be readily measured in experimental animal models. Animal models of attention have been used to better understand the neural systems involved in attention, how attention is impaired, and how therapeutic treatments can ameliorate attentional deficits. This review fo...

Full Text Available The purpose of the Planning stage is to analyze the project in terms of work breakdown, cost, resources, and timing. At the end of this stage all team members should be clear on the sub tasks and deliverables with the project, the time constraints they are working too and the roles and responsibilities that are expected from them.Software Project Plandefines what the work is, and how this work can be completed. This plan is developed at the beginning of the software project and is continually refined and improved as the work rocesses. It can be useful to management as a frame work for review and control the process of developing the software. Additionally, the Software Project Plan can define each of the major tasks and estimate the time and resources that are required to complete these tasks.

How can a definition be given to what does not yet exist ? The Internet of Things, as it is conceptualized by researchers or imagined by science-fiction writers such as Bruce Sterling, is not yet reality and if we try to define it accurately we risk rash predictions. In order to better comprehend this notion, let us first define the main principles of the IoT as given in research papers and reports on the subject. Definitions gradually established Almost all agree that the Internet of Things...

How can a definition be given to what does not yet exist ? The Internet of Things, as it is conceptualized by researchers or imagined by science-fiction writers such as Bruce Sterling, is not yet reality and if we try to define it accurately we risk rash predictions. In order to better comprehend this notion, let us first define the main principles of the IoT as given in research papers and reports on the subject. Definitions gradually established Almost all agree that the Internet of Things...

In "The Passionate Mind: How People with Autism Learn", Wendy Lawson presents readers with various cognitive theories of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In this book, Lawson makes reference to the medical and social models of disability, urging readers to consider disability from a social rather than a medical or deficit-driven perspective. Each…

In "The Passionate Mind: How People with Autism Learn", Wendy Lawson presents readers with various cognitive theories of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In this book, Lawson makes reference to the medical and social models of disability, urging readers to consider disability from a social rather than a medical or deficit-driven perspective. Each…

Drawing on theory of bounded rationality and the attention-based view of the company, decision-makers' focus of attention is examined within the new product development process. Attention, defined as something which occupies individual consciousness, should be directed at selecting development...

A defined medium (medium MB) for Moraxella bovis was formulated. Nineteen strains grew well on medium MB. One strain was auxotrophic for asparagine, and another was auxotrophic for methionine. Strains of M. equi and M. lacunata also grew on medium MB. All strains had an absolute requirement for thiamine and were stimulated by or actually required the other growth factors in the medium.

In this tutorial you are going to learn how to define the programme of a conference in Indico. The program of your conference is divided in different “tracks”. Tracks represent the subject matter of the conference, such as “Online Computing”, “Offline Computing”, and so on.

on the intrinsic relation between definition and measurement. In the area of usability, this relation has been developed over several years. It is described how usability is defined and measured in contemporary approaches. Based on that, it is discussed to what extent we can employ experience from the conceptual...

Sphincter of Oddi (SO) dysmotility may give rise to pain. The golden standard for the demonstration of SO dysfunction is endoscopic manometry. A number of abnormalities are observed in patients with postcholecystectomy pain and in patients with idiopathic recurrent pancreatitis. Criteria for defi...... for defining SO dysfunction and the possible mechanisms for the precipitation of pain are discussed....

A defined medium (medium MB) for Moraxella bovis was formulated. Nineteen strains grew well on medium MB. One strain was auxotrophic for asparagine, and another was auxotrophic for methionine. Strains of M. equi and M. lacunata also grew on medium MB. All strains had an absolute requirement for thiamine and were stimulated by or actually required the other growth factors in the medium.

A defined medium (medium MB) for Moraxella bovis was formulated. Nineteen strains grew well on medium MB. One strain was auxotrophic for asparagine, and another was auxotrophic for methionine. Strains of M. equi and M. lacunata also grew on medium MB. All strains had an absolute requirement for thiamine and were stimulated by or actually required the other growth factors in the medium.

Many resources now punctuate the maker movement landscape. However, some schools and communities still struggle to understand this burgeoning movement. How do we define these spaces and differentiate them from previous labs and shops? Through a multidimensional framework, stakeholders should consider how the structure, access, staffing, and tools…

Adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) show attentional dysfunction such as distractibility and mind-wandering, especially in lengthy tasks. However, fundamentals of dysfunction are ambiguous and relationships of neuropsychological test parameters with self-report measures of ADHD symptoms are marginal. We hypothesize that basic deficits in sustaining attention explain more complex attentional dysfunction in persons with ADHD and relate to ADHD symptoms. Attentional function was analyzed by computing ex-Gaussian parameters for 3 time Blocks in a 20 min test of sustained alertness. Changes in performance across these blocks were analyzed by comparing adult persons with ADHD (n = 24) with healthy matched controls (n = 24) and correlated with neuropsychological measures of selective and divided attention as well as self-report measures of ADHD symptoms. We found a significantly steeper increase in the number of slow responses (ex-Gaussian parameter τ) in persons with ADHD with time on task in basic sustained alertness. They also performed significantly worse in tasks of sustained selective and divided attention. However, after controlling for an increase in τ during the alertness task, significant differences between groups disappeared for divided and partly selective attention. Increases in τ in the sustained alertness task correlated significantly with self-report measures of ADHD symptoms. Our results provide evidence that very basic deficits in sustaining attention in adults with ADHD are related to infrequent slow responses (=attentional lapses), with changes over time being relevant for more complex attentional function and experienced ADHD symptoms in everyday life.

Full Text Available We all experience at least occasional lapses in attention but in some neurological conditions, loss of attention is pervasive and debilitating. Treating deficits in attention first requires an understanding of the neurobiology of attention, which we now understand to be a set of different cognitive processes. Cholinesterase inhibitors are already established as effective attentional enhancers used in the treatment of certain dementias. Other stimulant agents such as modafanil, amphetamine and methylphenidate have demonstrated limited success in healthy individuals where attention is already optimal and clinical trials in patients with neurological disease are sparse. Dietary and lifestyle changes are gaining increasing prominence, as are experimental treatments such as deep brain stimulation and transcranial magnetic stimulation. As the therapeutic arsenal widens, clinicians will be able to match specific treatments to selective deficits in attention, giving patients a tailored management plan. Here we review common diseases that impair attention and emphasise how an understanding of attentional processing within the brain might lead to improved therapeutic strategies.

Attention and executive functions were investigated in medicated and unmedicated children with ADHD combined type using a novel selective reaching task. This task involved responding as rapidly as possible to a target while at times having to ignore a distractor. Results indicated that unmedicated children with ADHD showed slow and inaccurate responding. Slow responding reflected problems at the stage of movement preparation but not movement execution. An attentional impairment, rather than a motor planning problem per se, appeared to underlie the slow movement preparation. Inaccurate responding reflected problems with response inhibition and selective attention, impulsivity, set-shifting, and difficulties in maintaining vigilance. Although medicated children with ADHD did not show slow movement preparation, they did show some response inaccuracy, resulting especially from impulsive responding. These findings suggest that ADHD is characterized by slow motor preparation (but not motor execution), and deficits in selective attention, vigilance, and executive functions. Preliminary results suggest that stimulant medication may resolve some of these motor, attentional and executive function deficits.

Planning, and Operations 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER 9. SPONSORING / MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 10 . SPONSOR/MONITOR’S ACRONYM...if one day the control systems of a major dam suddenly released torrents of water upon nearby communities, or safety systems of nuclear power plants...Cyberspace is America’s operating system, analogous to a national-level Windows XP™. A system crash would cause grave damage to the economy and national

Full Text Available OBJECTIVES: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD in adults has been associated with disturbances of attention and executive functions. Furthermore, impairments of verbal and figural retrospective memory were reported. However, little is known about the effects of ADHD on prospective memory, the execution of delayed intentions in the future. METHODS: The present study compared the performance of 45 adult patients with ADHD not treated with stimulant medication with the performance of 45 matched healthy individuals on a paradigm of complex prospective memory which measured task planning, plan recall, self-initiation and execution. Furthermore, the contribution of other cognitive functions to prospective memory functioning was assessed, including measures of attention, executive functions and memory. RESULTS: A large-scale impairment could be observed in task planning abilities in patients with ADHD. Only negligible to small effects were found for plan recall, self-initiation and execution. Inhibition was identified to contribute significantly to performance on task planning. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings suggest that four cognitive components contribute to the performance of prospective memory. Impairments of prospective memory mainly emerged from deficient planning abilities in adults with ADHD. Implications on behavioral based intervention strategies are discussed.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the value of computerised decision support in the management of chronic respiratory disease by comparing agreement between three respiratory specialists, general practitioners (care coordinators), and decision support software. METHODS: Care guidelines for two chronic

We summarize and discuss a series of psychophysical studies on the effects of spatial covert attention on spatial resolution, our ability to discriminate fine patterns. Heightened resolution is beneficial in most, but not all, visual tasks. We show how endogenous attention (voluntary, goal driven) and exogenous attention (involuntary, stimulus driven) affect performance on a variety of tasks mediated by spatial resolution, such as visual search, crowding, acuity, and texture segmentation. Exogenous attention is an automatic mechanism that increases resolution regardless of whether it helps or hinders performance. In contrast, endogenous attention flexibly adjusts resolution to optimize performance according to task demands. We illustrate how psychophysical studies can reveal the underlying mechanisms of these effects and allow us to draw linking hypotheses with known neurophysiological effects of attention. PMID:25948640

1.Review on previous master planning of Tianjin From 1953 to 1999,with thanks to the great attention of the Municipal Government of Tianjin to the work of master planning,there had been 21 draft master plans finished successively for Tianjin,

We investigate the impact of product market advertising on investor attention and financial market outcomes. Using daily advertising data allows us to identify short-term effects of advertising. We measure daily investor attention based the company's number of Wikipedia page views. We show that TV and newspaper advertising positively impacts short-term investor attention. It also positively impacts turnover and liquidity, but the effects are not economically significant. Most importantly, ass...

Virtually all behavioral and neurophysiological studies have shown that sustained (endogenous, conceptually driven) attention enhances perception. But can this enhancement be held indefinitely? We assessed the time course of attention’s effects on contrast sensitivity, reasoning that if attention does indeed boost stimulus strength, the strengthened representation could result in stronger adaptation over time. We found that attention initially enhances contrast sensitivity, but that over time...

The delivery of cancer care in Ontario is facing unprecedented challenges. Shortages in nursing, as in all professional disciplines, are having an impact on the delivery of cancer care. Oncology nurses have a major role to play in the delivery of optimum cancer care. Oncology nursing, when adequately defined and supported, can benefit the cancer delivery system, patients, and families. A primary nursing model is seen as being key to the delivery of optimum cancer care. Primary nursing as a philosophy facilitates continuity of care, coordination of a patient's care plan, and a meaningful ongoing relationship with the patient and his/her family. Primary nursing, when delivered in the collaboration of a nurse-physician team, allows for medical resources to be used appropriately. Defined roles enable nurses to manage patients within their scope of practice in collaboration with physicians. Enacting other nursing roles, such as nurse practitioners and advanced practice nurses, can also enable the health care system to manage a broader number of patients with more complex needs. This article presents a position paper originally written as the basis for an advocacy and education initiative in Ontario. It is shared in anticipation that the work may be useful to oncology nurses in other jurisdictions in their efforts to advance oncology nursing and improvement of patient care.

Full Text Available Abstract Background Very little is known about attention deficits in developmental dyscalculia, hence, this study was designed to provide the missing information. We examined attention abilities of participants suffering from developmental dyscalculia using the attention networks test - interactions. This test was designed to examine three different attention networks--executive function, orienting and alerting--and the interactions between them. Methods Fourteen university students that were diagnosed as suffering from developmental dyscalculia--intelligence and reading abilities in the normal range and no indication of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder--and 14 matched controls were tested using the attention networks test - interactions. All participants were given preliminary tests to measure mathematical abilities, reading, attention and intelligence. Results The results revealed deficits in the alerting network--a larger alerting effect--and in the executive function networks--a larger congruity effect in developmental dyscalculia participants. The interaction between the alerting and executive function networks was also modulated by group. In addition, developmental dyscalculia participants were slower to respond in the non-cued conditions. Conclusions These results imply specific attentional deficits in pure developmental dyscalculia. Namely, those with developmental dyscalculia seem to be deficient in the executive function and alertness networks. They suffer from difficulty in recruiting attention, in addition to the deficits in numerical processing.

, and include both selective phenomena, where attention is invoked by cues that point to particular stimuli, and integrative phenomena, where attention is invoked dynamically by endogenous processing. However, most previous Bayesian accounts of attention have focused on describing relatively simple experimental......The behavioral phenomena of sensory attention are thought to reflect the allocation of a limited processing resource, but there is little consensus on the nature of the resource or why it should be limited. Here we argue that a fundamental bottleneck emerges naturally within Bayesian models...

This squib examines the role of limited attention in a theory of discourse structure and proposes a model of attentional state that relates current hierarchical theories of discourse structure to empirical evidence about human discourse processing capabilities. First, I present examples that are not predicted by Grosz and Sidner's stack model of attentional state. Then I consider an alternative model of attentional state, the cache model, which accounts for the examples, and which makes particular processing predictions. Finally I suggest a number of ways that future research could distinguish the predictions of the cache model and the stack model.

Case-control studies comparing ADHD with typically developing individuals suggest that anatomical asymmetry of the caudate nucleus is a marker of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, there is no consensus on whether the asymmetry favors the right or left caudate nucleus in ADHD, or whether the asymmetry is increased or decreased in ADHD. The current study aimed to clarify this relationship by applying a dimensional approach to assessing ADHD symptoms that, instead of relying on clinical classification, utilizes the natural behavioral continuum of traits related to ADHD. Structural T1-weighted MRI was collected from 71 adults between 18 and 35 years and analyzed for caudate asymmetry. ADHD-like attentional symptoms were assessed with an objective measure of attentional problems, the ADHD score from the Test of Variables of Attention (TOVA). Impulsivity, a core feature in ADHD, was measured using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, a self-report measure that assesses attentional, non-planning, and motor features of impulsivity. We found that larger right relative to left caudate volumes correlated with both higher attentional impulsiveness and worse ADHD scores on the TOVA. Higher attentional impulsiveness also correlated with worse ADHD scores, establishing coherence between the objective measure and the self-report measure of attentional problems. These results suggest that a differential passage of information through frontal-striatal networks may produce instability leading to attentional problems. The findings also demonstrate the utility of a dimensional approach to understanding structural correlates of ADHD symptoms.

Attentional capture for distractors is enhanced by increasing the difficulty of discrimination between the standard and the target in the three-stimulus oddball paradigm. In this study, we investigated the cognitive mechanism of this modulation of attentional capture. Event-related brain potentials were recorded from participants while they…

Focuses on the historical and sociolinguistic studies that illuminate corpus planning processes. These processes are broken down and discussed under two categories: those related to the establishment of norms, referred to as codification, and those related to the extension of the linguistic functions of language, referred to as elaboration. (60…

In this article, we analyse the evolution and transformation of Danish spatial planning from its tentative origins in liberalist politics, through its rise as a central feature of the welfare state project, to its more recent entrepreneurial forms in a context of neoliberalisation. The article...... demonstrates how transformations of Danish spatial planning discourses and practices must be understood in context of previous discourses and practices sedimented as layers of meaning and materiality through time and over space. These layers do not completely overlay one another, but present a palimpsest...... saturated with contradictions as well as possibilities. We propose the notion of the ‘planning palimpsest’ as a helpful metaphor for drawing attention to the historical-geographical characteristics of planning discourses and practices....

In this article, we analyse the evolution and transformation of Danish spatial planning from its tentative origins in liberalist politics, through its rise as a central feature of the welfare state project, to its more recent entrepreneurial forms in a context of neoliberalisation. The article...... demonstrates how transformations of Danish spatial planning discourses and practices must be understood in context of previous discourses and practices sedimented as layers of meaning and materiality through time and over space. These layers do not completely overlay one another, but present a palimpsest...... saturated with contradictions as well as possibilities. We propose the notion of the ‘planning palimpsest’ as a helpful metaphor for drawing attention to the historical-geographical characteristics of planning discourses and practices....

This paper presents an performance evaluation of GNU Radio and OSSIE, two open source Software Defined Radio (SDR) architectures. The two architectures were compared by running implementations of a BPSK waveform utilising a software loopback channel on each. The upper bound full duplex throughput was found to be around 700kbps in both cases, though OSSIE was slightly faster than GNU Radio. CPU and memory loads did not differ significantly.

Full Text Available Disseminated cryptococcosis is one of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome defining criteria and the most common cause of life threatening meningitis. Disseminated lesions in the skin manifest as papules or nodules that mimic molluscum contagiosum (MC. We report here a human immunodeficiency virus positive patient who presented with MC like lesions. Disseminated cryptococcosis was confirmed by India ink preparation and histopathology. The condition of the patient improved with amphotercin B.

This review focuses on covert attention and how it alters early vision. I explain why attention is considered a selective process, the constructs of covert attention, spatial endogenous and exogenous attention, and feature-based attention. I explain how in the last 25 years research on attention has characterized the effects of covert attention on spatial filters and how attention influences the selection of stimuli of interest. This review includes the effects of spatial attention on discrim...

The concept 'green adjuvants' is difficult to define. This paper formulates an answer based on two approaches. Starting from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) definition for green chemistry, production-based and environmental-impact-based definitions for green adjuvants are proposed. According to the production-based approach, adjuvants are defined as green if they are manufactured using renewable raw materials as much as possible while making efficient use of energy, preferably renewable energy. According to the environmental impact approach, adjuvants are defined as green (1) if they have a low human and environmental impact, (2) if they do not increase active ingredient environmental mobility and/or toxicity to humans and non-target organisms, (3) if they do not increase the exposure to these active substances and (4) if they lower the impact of formulated pesticides by enhancing the performance of active ingredients, thus potentially lowering the required dosage of active ingredients. Based on both approaches, a tentative definition for 'green adjuvants' is given, and future research and legislation directions are set out.

Full Text Available It is clear, as recently established scientifically, that global change is produced byman­made activities carried out on the planet. For a long time, experts have found anomalies and irrationally risky human actions as regards processes which are destroying environmental systems and their natural biotypes. Cities, where in a few years about the 75% of the global population is expected to live, represent one of the main entropic systems, inparticular because of the concentration of climate­ altering activities. The attention given to subjects: “sustainable” development, participated urban planning, sustainable mobility, andsoon, has been characterising investigations in the field of urban and regional sciences. It is now necessary to achieve a new “ethic” in urban planning, in order to pass from investigation to practice, by codifying a new sustainable process in order to manage territorial transformations. This paper suggests an investigation on this new process, defined as “eco town planning”, pointing out the basic features and the systemic approach on which it is based. Finally a case study is described whichhasbeencarriedoutinamid­sizecityinItaly:Benevento. An “off­grid” urban district, with no green house gas emissions, has been designed for the new city master plan.

Planning, or reasoning about actions, is a fundamental element of intelligent behavior--and one that artificial intelligence has found very difficult to implement. The most well-understood approach to building planning systems has been under refinement since the late 1960s and has now reached a level of maturity where there are good prospects for building working planners. Practical Planning is an in-depth examination of this classical planning paradigm through an intensive case study of SIPE, a significantly implemented planning system. The author, the developer of SIPE, defines the plann

The role of the prefrontal cortex still remains poorly understood. Only after 1970, the functions of the frontal lobes have been conceptualized from different points of view (behaviorism, cognitivism). Recently,different parallel circuits connecting discrete cortical and subcortical regions of the frontal lobes have been described. Three of these circuits are the most relevant to understanding of behavior: the dorsolateral prefrontal circuit, that mediates executive behavior; the orbitofrontal prefrontal circuit, mediating social behavior, and the medial frontal circuit, involved in motivation. Damage to the frontal cortex impairs planning, problem solving, reasoning, concept formation, temporal ordering of stimuli, estimation, attention, memory search, maintaining information in working memory, associative learning,certain forms of skilled motor activities, image generation and manipulation of the spatial properties of a stimulus, metacognitive thinking, and social cognition. Several theories have been proposed to explain the functions of the prefrontal cortex. Currently,the most influential cognitive models are: the Norman and Shallice supervisory attentional system, involved in non-routine selection; the Baddeley working memory model with the central executive as a supervisory controlling system, in which impairment leads to a 'dysexecutive syndrome'; and the Grafman's model of managerial knowledge units, stored as macrostructured information in the frontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is essential for attentional control, manipulation of stored knowledge and modulation of complex actions, cognition, emotion and behavior.

Purpose – Managers' attention is a scarce resource in complex innovation settings. Prior research on the factors to which managers pay attention is mostly based on surveys. The present study aims to address the need for knowledge about the behavior of decision makers based on observations from po...

Voluntary control of attention promotes intelligent, adaptive behaviors by enabling the selective processing of information that is most relevant for making decisions. Despite extensive research on attention in primates, the capacity for selective attention in nonprimate species has never been quantified. Here we demonstrate selective attention in chickens by applying protocols that have been used to characterize visual spatial attention in primates. Chickens were trained to localize and report the vertical position of a target in the presence of task-relevant distracters. A spatial cue, the location of which varied across individual trials, indicated the horizontal, but not vertical, position of the upcoming target. Spatial cueing improved localization performance: accuracy (d') increased and reaction times decreased in a space-specific manner. Distracters severely impaired perceptual performance, and this impairment was greatly reduced by spatial cueing. Signal detection analysis with an "indecision" model demonstrated that spatial cueing significantly increased choice certainty in localizing targets. By contrast, error-aversion certainty (certainty of not making an error) remained essentially constant across cueing protocols, target contrasts, and individuals. The results show that chickens shift spatial attention rapidly and dynamically, following principles of stimulus selection that closely parallel those documented in primates. The findings suggest that the mechanisms that control attention have been conserved through evolution, and establish chickens--a highly visual species that is easily trained and amenable to cutting-edge experimental technologies--as an attractive model for linking behavior to neural mechanisms of selective attention.

This article deals with a biologically-motivated three-level computational attention model architecture based on the rarity and the information theory framework. It mainly focuses on low-level and medium-level steps and their application in pre-attentive detection of tumours in CT scans and unusual events in audio recordings.

A common assumption in visual attention is based on the rationale of "limited capacity of information pro-ceasing". From this view point there is little consideration of how different information channels or modules are cooperating because cells in processing stages are forced to compete for the limited resource. To examine the mechanism behind the cooperative behavior of information channels, a computational model of selective attention is implemented based on two hypotheses. Unlike the traditional view of visual attention, the cooperative behavior is assumed to be a dynamic integration process between the bottom-up and top-down information. Furthermore, top-down information is assumed to provide a contextual cue during selection process and to guide the attentional allocation among many bottom-up candidates. The result from a series of simulation with still and video images showed some interesting properties that could not be explained by the competitive aspect of selective attention alone.

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder is a common malady in the general population, with up to 8.1 percent of adults meeting criteria for this syndrome. In the college setting, the diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder may offer specific academic advantages. Once the diagnosis is assigned, the prescription of stimulant medication may provide additional secondary gains through misuse and/or diversion. For example, these drugs may be used by college consumers to increase alertness, energy, academic performance, and athletic performance. Stimulants may also decrease psychological distress, alleviate restlessness and weight concerns, and be used for recreational purposes. According to the findings of five studies, the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder can be believably faked, particularly when assessed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptom checklists. Thus, the faking of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a realistic concern in both psychiatric and primary care settings.

. The results suggest that the majority of subjects may learn to optimize their performance reducing the attentional dwell time effect substantially. Further, the reduction in the attentional dwell time effect seems to be closely linked to the ability of the subject to inhibit eye movements while performing......Studies of the time course of visual attention have identified a temporary functional blindness to the second of two spatially separated targets: attending to one visual stimulus may lead to impairments in identifying a second stimulus presented about 200-500 ms later than the first. The phenomenon...... is known as the attentional dwell time (e.g. Duncan, Ward, Shapiro, 1994). Previous studies of attentional dwell time have all used naive subjects running few (

Paying attention to stimuli that predict a reward outcome is important for an organism to survive and thrive. When visual stimuli are associated with tangible, extrinsic rewards such as money or food, these stimuli acquire high attentional priority and come to automatically capture attention. In humans and other primates, however, many behaviors are not motivated directly by such extrinsic rewards, but rather by the social feedback that results from performing those behaviors. In the present study, I examine whether positive social feedback can similarly influence attentional bias. The results show that stimuli previously associated with a high probability of positive social feedback elicit value-driven attentional capture, much like stimuli associated with extrinsic rewards. Unlike with extrinsic rewards, however, such stimuli also influence task-specific motivation. My findings offer a potential mechanism by which social reward shapes the information that we prioritize when perceiving the world around us.

Full Text Available Artificial vision systems cannot process all the information that they receive from the world in real time because it is highly expensive and inefficient in terms of computational cost. Inspired by biological perception systems, articial attention models pursuit to select only the relevant part of the scene. Besides, it is well established that the units of attention on human vision are not merely spatial but closely related to perceptual objects (proto-objects. This implies a strong bidirectional relationship between segmentation and attention processes. Therefore, while the segmentation process is the responsible to extract the proto-objects from the scene, attention can guide segmentation, arising the concept of foveal attention. When the focus of attention is deployed from one visual unit to another, the rest of the scene is perceived but at a lower resolution that the focused object. The result is a multi-resolution visual perception in which the fovea, a dimple on the central retina, provides the highest resolution vision. In this paper, a bottom-up foveal attention model is presented. In this model the input image is a foveal image represented using a Cartesian Foveal Geometry (CFG, which encodes the field of view of the sensor as a fovea (placed in the focus of attention surrounded by a set of concentric rings with decreasing resolution. Then multirresolution perceptual segmentation is performed by building a foveal polygon using the Bounded Irregular Pyramid (BIP. Bottom-up attention is enclosed in the same structure, allowing to set the fovea over the most salient image proto-object. Saliency is computed as a linear combination of multiple low level features such us colour and intensity contrast, symmetry, orientation and roundness. Obtained results from natural images show that the performance of the combination of hierarchical foveal segmentation and saliency estimation is good in terms of accuracy and speed.

Whereas it has long been assumed that most linguistic processes underlying language production happen automatically, accumulating evidence suggests that these processes do require some form of attention. Here we investigated the contribution of sustained attention: the ability to maintain alertness over time. In Experiment 1, participants' sustained attention ability was measured using auditory and visual continuous performance tasks. Subsequently, employing a dual-task procedure, participants described pictures using simple noun phrases and performed an arrow-discrimination task while their vocal and manual response times (RTs) and the durations of their gazes to the pictures were measured. Earlier research has demonstrated that gaze duration reflects language planning processes up to and including phonological encoding. The speakers' sustained attention ability correlated with the magnitude of the tail of the vocal RT distribution, reflecting the proportion of very slow responses, but not with individual differences in gaze duration. This suggests that sustained attention was most important after phonological encoding. Experiment 2 showed that the involvement of sustained attention was significantly stronger in a dual-task situation (picture naming and arrow discrimination) than in simple naming. Thus, individual differences in maintaining attention on the production processes become especially apparent when a simultaneous second task also requires attentional resources.

@@ Yes,women like and enjoy shopping.Always,they want to buy some well-designed clothes with the most 'in'factors; and what's of the great importance,they would like to hear the words:"wow! You fit the wear well!"However,the most satisfied right things could not be always waiting for you there or you would not help complaining the so-fast changing trends day by day.At that time,why not to seek some delights from the basic classic collections?UNIQLO maybe is a choice for you to define your own fashion.

User experience is being used to denote what a user goes through while using a computerized system. The concept has gained momentum as a means to distinguish new types of applications such as games and entertainment software from more traditional work-related applications. This paper focuses...... on the intrinsic relation between definition and measurement. In the area of usability, this relation has been developed over several years. It is described how usability is defined and measured in contemporary approaches. Based on that, it is discussed to what extent we can employ experience from the conceptual...... definition of usability to develop the notion of user experience....

Unexpected changes in the location of a target for an upcoming action require both attentional reorienting and motor planning update. In both macaque and human brain, the medial posterior parietal cortex is involved in both phenomena but its causal role is still unclear. Here we used on-line rTMS over the putative human V6A (pV6A), a reach-related region in the dorsal part of the anterior bank of the parieto-occipital sulcus, during an attention and a reaching task requiring covert shifts of attention and planning of reaching movements toward cued targets in space. We found that rTMS increased RTs to invalidly cued but not to validly cued targets during both the attention and reaching task. Furthermore, we found that rTMS induced a deviation of reaching endpoints toward visual fixation and that this deviation was larger for invalidly cued targets. The results suggest that reorienting signals are used by human pV6A area to rapidly update the current motor plan or the ongoing action when a behaviorally relevant object unexpectedly occurs in an unattended location. The current findings suggest a direct involvement of the action-related dorso-medial visual stream in attentional reorienting and a more specific role of pV6A area in the dynamic, on-line control of reaching actions.

Are viruses alive? Until very recently, answering this question was often negative and viruses were not considered in discussions on the origin and definition of life. This situation is rapidly changing, following several discoveries that have modified our vision of viruses. It has been recognized that viruses have played (and still play) a major innovative role in the evolution of cellular organisms. New definitions of viruses have been proposed and their position in the universal tree of life is actively discussed. Viruses are no more confused with their virions, but can be viewed as complex living entities that transform the infected cell into a novel organism—the virus—producing virions. I suggest here to define life (an historical process) as the mode of existence of ribosome encoding organisms (cells) and capsid encoding organisms (viruses) and their ancestors. I propose to define an organism as an ensemble of integrated organs (molecular or cellular) producing individuals evolving through natural selection. The origin of life on our planet would correspond to the establishment of the first organism corresponding to this definition.

Are viruses alive? Until very recently, answering this question was often negative and viruses were not considered in discussions on the origin and definition of life. This situation is rapidly changing, following several discoveries that have modified our vision of viruses. It has been recognized that viruses have played (and still play) a major innovative role in the evolution of cellular organisms. New definitions of viruses have been proposed and their position in the universal tree of life is actively discussed. Viruses are no more confused with their virions, but can be viewed as complex living entities that transform the infected cell into a novel organism-the virus-producing virions. I suggest here to define life (an historical process) as the mode of existence of ribosome encoding organisms (cells) and capsid encoding organisms (viruses) and their ancestors. I propose to define an organism as an ensemble of integrated organs (molecular or cellular) producing individuals evolving through natural selection. The origin of life on our planet would correspond to the establishment of the first organism corresponding to this definition.

New York City Board of Education, Brooklyn, NY. Div. of Curriculum and Instruction.

This manual for secondary school teachers offers sample lesson plans that may be used to guide and stimulate experimentation and development of creative instructional units. Lesson plan components are defined, and various types of lessons and their significant characteristics are identified. These characteristic types of lessons are illustrated,…

Logic has its origins in basic questions about the nature of the real world and how we describe it. This article seeks to bring out the physical and epistemological relevance of some of the more recent technical work in logic and computability theory. "If you are receptive and humble, mathematics will lead you by the hand. Again and again, when I have been at a loss how to proceed, I have just had to wait until I have felt the mathematics lead me by the hand. It has led me along an unexpected path, a path where new vistas open up, a path leading to new territory, where one can set up a base of operations, from which one can survey the surroundings and plan future progress." - Paul Dirac, 27 November, 1975. In Paul A. M. Dirac Papers, Florida State University Libraries, Tallahassee, Florida, USA, No. 2/29/17.

The limits of acceptable change (LAC) planning framework recognizes that forest managers must decide what indicators of wilderness conditions best represent resource naturalness and high-quality visitor experiences and how much change from the pristine is acceptable for each indicator. Visitor opinions on the aspects of the wilderness that have great impact on their experience can provide valuable input to selection of indicators. Cohutta, Georgia; Caney Creek, Arkansas; Upland Island, Texas; and Rattlesnake, Montana, wilderness visitors have high shared agreement that littering and damage to trees in campsites, noise, and seeing wildlife are very important influences on wilderness experiences. Camping within sight or sound of other people influences experience quality more than do encounters on the trails. Visitors’ standards of acceptable conditions within wilderness vary considerably, suggesting a potential need to manage different zones within wilderness for different clientele groups and experiences. Standards across wildernesses, however, are remarkably similar.

Greater attention has been focused on the role that employer-sponsored retirement plans and individual savings must play in ensuring retirement income security. Alternative tax retirement planning opportunities currently available to college personnel are explored. (MLW)

Visual selective attention is the brain function that modulates ongoing processing of retinal input in order for selected representations to gain privileged access to perceptual awareness and guide behavior. Enhanced analysis of currently relevant or otherwise salient information is often accompanied by suppressed processing of the less relevant or salient input. Recent findings indicate that rewards exert a powerful influence on the deployment of visual selective attention. Such influence takes different forms depending on the specific protocol adopted in the given study. In some cases, the prospect of earning a larger reward in relation to a specific stimulus or location biases attention accordingly in order to maximize overall gain. This is mediated by an effect of reward acting as a type of incentive motivation for the strategic control of attention. In contrast, reward delivery can directly alter the processing of specific stimuli by increasing their attentional priority, and this can be measured even when rewards are no longer involved, reflecting a form of reward-mediated attentional learning. As a further development, recent work demonstrates that rewards can affect attentional learning in dissociable ways depending on whether rewards are perceived as feedback on performance or instead are registered as random-like events occurring during task performance. Specifically, it appears that visual selective attention is shaped by two distinct reward-related learning mechanisms: one requiring active monitoring of performance and outcome, and a second one detecting the sheer association between objects in the environment (whether attended or ignored) and the more-or-less rewarding events that accompany them. Overall this emerging literature demonstrates unequivocally that rewards "teach" visual selective attention so that processing resources will be allocated to objects, features and locations which are likely to optimize the organism's interaction with the

Full Text Available Professionalism is a way of being which underlies all the responsibilities of a pharmacist and associated general and professional abilities. The Student Affairs Committee was charged with developing a college-wide professionalism plan to meet the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE Standards 15.1 and 23. This plan was developed concurrently with a new curriculum. The plan was developed systematically with the following goals: 1 create a definition of professionalism, 2 determine outcomes of the plan, 3 identify existing components which should be continued and new components to be added, 4 ensure existing and new components are linked to outcomes and 5 develop a continuous assessment process for the plan. The proposed plan consists of curricular, co-curricular and extra-curricular activities designed to help students gain experience in three professionalism pillars: Competence, Connection and Character, as defined by Brown et al in “Taxonomy of Professionalism”. While knowledge and skills will be enhanced, the focus of development will be on student virtues, values and attitudes—that what they do defines who they are. The goal is to help students develop as people and professionals who value the high ideals expected of a pharmacist.

Full Text Available Thermal stress has been shown to increase the chances of unsafe behavior during industrial and driving performances due to reductions in mental and attentional resources. Nonetheless, establishing appropriate safety standards regarding environmental temperature has been a major problem, as modulations are also be affected by the task type, complexity, workload, duration, and previous experience with the task. To bypass this attentional and thermoregulatory problem, we focused on the body rather than environmental temperature. Specifically, we measured tympanic, forehead, finger and environmental temperatures accompanied by a battery of attentional tasks. We considered a 10 min baseline period wherein subjects were instructed to sit and relax, followed by three attentional tasks: a continuous performance task (CPT, a flanker task (FT and a counting task (CT. Using multiple linear regression models, we evaluated which variable(s were the best predictors of performance. The results showed a decrement in finger temperature due to instruction and task engagement that was absent when the subject was instructed to relax. No changes were observed in tympanic or forehead temperatures, while the environmental temperature remained almost constant for each subject. Specifically, the magnitude of the change in finger temperature was the best predictor of performance in all three attentional tasks. The results presented here suggest that finger temperature can be used as a predictor of alertness, as it predicted performance in attentional tasks better than environmental temperature. These findings strongly support that peripheral temperature can be used as a tool to prevent unsafe behaviors and accidents.

The plan of mass transport or transit lines is a vital part of an organisation of public transportation services. An optimisation of the plan can improve the service either by reducing the operational costs or by improving of service quality. Three subjects interact in the problem namely state or local administration, transport companies and citizens. The plan optimisation should find the best compromise to satisfy interests of all actors. A relevant criterion must be defined to find the b...

The first part of the paper offers philosophical landmarks on the general issue of defining life. §1 defends that the recognition of “life” has always been and remains primarily an intuitive process, for the scientist as for the layperson. However we should not expect, then, to be able to draw a definition from this original experience, because our cognitive apparatus has not been primarily designed for this. §2 is about definitions in general. Two kinds of definition should be carefully distinguished: lexical definitions (based upon current uses of a word), and stipulative or legislative definitions, which deliberately assign a meaning to a word, for the purpose of clarifying scientific or philosophical arguments. The present volume provides examples of these two kinds of definitions. §3 examines three traditional philosophical definitions of life, all of which have been elaborated prior to the emergence of biology as a specific scientific discipline: life as animation (Aristotle), life as mechanism, and life as organization (Kant). All three concepts constitute a common heritage that structures in depth a good deal of our cultural intuitions and vocabulary any time we try to think about “life”. The present volume offers examples of these three concepts in contemporary scientific discourse. The second part of the paper proposes a synthesis of the major debates developed in this volume. Three major questions have been discussed. A first issue (§4) is whether we should define life or not, and why. Most authors are skeptical about the possibility of defining life in a strong way, although all admit that criteria are useful in contexts such as exobiology, artificial life and the origins of life. §5 examines the possible kinds of definitions of life presented in the volume. Those authors who have explicitly defended that a definition of life is needed, can be classified into two categories. The first category (or standard view) refers to two conditions

The first part of the paper offers philosophical landmarks on the general issue of defining life. Section 1 defends that the recognition of "life" has always been and remains primarily an intuitive process, for the scientist as for the layperson. However we should not expect, then, to be able to draw a definition from this original experience, because our cognitive apparatus has not been primarily designed for this. Section 2 is about definitions in general. Two kinds of definition should be carefully distinguished: lexical definitions (based upon current uses of a word), and stipulative or legislative definitions, which deliberately assign a meaning to a word, for the purpose of clarifying scientific or philosophical arguments. The present volume provides examples of these two kinds of definitions. Section 3 examines three traditional philosophical definitions of life, all of which have been elaborated prior to the emergence of biology as a specific scientific discipline: life as animation (Aristotle), life as mechanism, and life as organization (Kant). All three concepts constitute a common heritage that structures in depth a good deal of our cultural intuitions and vocabulary any time we try to think about "life". The present volume offers examples of these three concepts in contemporary scientific discourse. The second part of the paper proposes a synthesis of the major debates developed in this volume. Three major questions have been discussed. A first issue (Section 4) is whether we should define life or not, and why. Most authors are skeptical about the possibility of defining life in a strong way, although all admit that criteria are useful in contexts such as exobiology, artificial life and the origins of life. Section 5 examines the possible kinds of definitions of life presented in the volume. Those authors who have explicitly defended that a definition of life is needed, can be classified into two categories. The first category (or standard view) refers

Full Text Available The question whether visual perception is spontaneous, sudden or is running through several phases, mediated by higher cognitive processes, was raised ever since the early work of Gestalt psychologists. In the early 1980s, Treisman proposed the feature integration theory of attention (FIT, based on the findings of neuroscience. Soon after publishing her theory a new scientific approach appeared investigating several visual perception phenomena. The most widely researched were the key constructs of FIT, like types of visual search and the role of the attention. The following review describes the main studies of early vision and visual attention.

Full Text Available Consciousness, as described in the experimental literature, is a multi-faceted phenomenon, that impinges on other well-studied concepts such as attention and control. Do consciousness and attention refer to different aspects of the same core phenomenon, or do they correspond to distinct functions? One possibility to address this question is to examine the neural mechanisms underlying consciousness and attention. If consciousness and attention pertain to the same concept, they should rely on shared neural mechanisms. Conversely, if their underlying mechanisms are distinct, then consciousness and attention should be considered as distinct entities. This paper therefore reviews neurophysiological facts arguing in favor or against a tight relationship between consciousness and attention. Three neural mechanisms that have been associated with both attention and consciousness are examined (neural amplification, involvement of the fronto-parietal network, and oscillatory synchrony, to conclude that the commonalities between attention and consciousness at the neural level may have been overestimated. Last but not least, experiments in which both attention and consciousness were probed at the neural level point toward a dissociation between the two concepts. It therefore appears from this review that consciousness and attention rely on distinct neural properties, although they can interact at the behavioral level. It is proposed that a "cumulative influence model", in which attention and consciousness correspond to distinct neural mechanisms feeding a single decisional process leading to behavior, fits best with available neural and behavioral data. In this view, consciousness should not be considered as a top-level executive function but should rather be defined by its experiential properties.

The integrated payload and mission planning process for STS payloads was defined, and discrete tasks which evaluate performance and support initial implementation of this process were conducted. The scope of activity was limited to NASA and NASA-related payload missions only. The integrated payload and mission planning process was defined in detail, including all related interfaces and scheduling requirements. Related to the payload mission planning process, a methodology for assessing early Spacelab mission manager assignment schedules was defined.

We contend that biocultural approaches to conservation can achieve effective and just conservation outcomes while addressing erosion of both cultural and biological diversity. Here, we propose a set of guidelines for the adoption of biocultural approaches to conservation. First, we draw lessons from work on biocultural diversity and heritage, social-ecological systems theory, integrated conservation and development, co-management, and community-based conservation to define biocultural approaches to conservation. Second, we describe eight principles that characterize such approaches. Third, we discuss reasons for adopting biocultural approaches and challenges. If used well, biocultural approaches to conservation can be a powerful tool for reducing the global loss of both biological and cultural diversity.

As NASA embarks upon developing the Next-Generation Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) Radio for deep space exploration, the demands on EVA battery life will substantially increase. The number of modes and frequency bands required will continue to grow in order to enable efficient and complex multi-mode operations including communications, navigation, and tracking applications. Whether conducting astronaut excursions, communicating to soldiers, or first responders responding to emergency hazards, NASA has developed an innovative, affordable, miniaturized, power-efficient software defined radio that offers unprecedented power-efficient flexibility. This lightweight, programmable, S-band, multi-service, frequency- agile EVA software defined radio (SDR) supports data, telemetry, voice, and both standard and high-definition video. Features include a modular design, an easily scalable architecture, and the EVA SDR allows for both stationary and mobile battery powered handheld operations. Currently, the radio is equipped with an S-band RF section. However, its scalable architecture can accommodate multiple RF sections simultaneously to cover multiple frequency bands. The EVA SDR also supports multiple network protocols. It currently implements a Hybrid Mesh Network based on the 802.11s open standard protocol. The radio targets RF channel data rates up to 20 Mbps and can be equipped with a real-time operating system (RTOS) that can be switched off for power-aware applications. The EVA SDR's modular design permits implementation of the same hardware at all Network Nodes concept. This approach assures the portability of the same software into any radio in the system. It also brings several benefits to the entire system including reducing system maintenance, system complexity, and development cost.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a disorder with extremely complex etiology, not yet well defined but certainly multi-factorial. This study investigated the possible etiopathogenetic role of ADHD symptoms and psychopathology disorders in parents of children with ADHD. We present a case-control study of parents of 50 children…

Selective attention in multidimensional displays has usually been examined using search tasks requiring the detection of a single target. We examined the ability to perceive a spatial structure in multi-item subsets of a display that were defined either conjunctively or disjunctively. Observers saw two adjacent displays and indicated whether the…

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a disorder with extremely complex etiology, not yet well defined but certainly multi-factorial. This study investigated the possible etiopathogenetic role of ADHD symptoms and psychopathology disorders in parents of children with ADHD. We present a case-control study of parents of 50 children…

The unmatched versatility of vision in mammals is totally dependent on purposive eye movements and selective attention guided by saliencies in the presented images. The current article shows how concepts and tools from the areas of random walks, Markov chains, complex networks and artificial image analysis can be naturally combined in order to provide a unified and biologically plausible model for saliency detection and visual attention, which become indistinguishable in the process. Images are converted into complex networks by considering pixels as nodes while connections are established in terms of fields of influence defined by visual features such as tangent fields induced by luminance contrasts, distance, and size. Random walks are performed on such networks in order to emulate attentional shifts and even eye movements in the case of large shapes, and the frequency of visits to each node is conveniently obtained from the eigenequation defined by the stochastic matrix associated to the respectively drive...

Improvements in attentional performance are at the core of proposed mechanisms for stress reduction in mindfulness meditation practices. However, this claim can be questioned because no previous studies have actively manipulated test effort in control groups and controlled for effects of stress reduction per se. In a blinded design, 48 young, healthy meditation novices were randomly assigned to a mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), nonmindfulness stress reduction (NMSR), or inactive control group. At posttest, inactive controls were randomly split into nonincentive and incentive controls, the latter receiving a financial reward to improve attentional performance. Pre- and postintervention, 5 validated attention paradigms were employed along with self-report scales on mindfulness and perceived stress and saliva cortisol samples to measure physiological stress. Attentional effects of MBSR, NMSR, and the financial incentive were comparable or significantly larger in the incentive group on all reaction-time-based measures. However, selective attention in the MBSR group improved significantly more than in any other group. Similarly, only the MBSR intervention improved the threshold for conscious perception and visual working memory capacity. Furthermore, stress-reducing effects of MBSR were supported because those in the MBSR group showed significantly less perceived and physiological stress while increasing their mindfulness levels significantly. We argue that MBSR may contribute uniquely to attentional improvements but that further research focusing on non-reaction-time-based measures and outcomes less confounded by test effort is needed. Critically, our data demonstrate that previously observed improvements of attention after MBSR may be seriously confounded by test effort and nonmindfulness stress reduction.

In the spirit of Merton (1987) we find that targeted communication by firms raises investor attention. Continental European firms using English-language commercial press wires to disseminate corporate press releases exhibit less drift and more trading volume after their earnings announcements than firms that do not, consistent with communication on English speaking wires raising investor attention. Continental European firms using English-language commercial press wires also receive more pres...

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder is a common malady in the general population, with up to 8.1 percent of adults meeting criteria for this syndrome. In the college setting, the diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder may offer specific academic advantages. Once the diagnosis is assigned, the prescription of stimulant medication may provide additional secondary gains through misuse and/or diversion. For example, these drugs may be used by college consumers to increase aler...

Objective: Impaired visual attention is common following strokes in the territory of the middle cerebral artery, particularly in the right hemisphere. However, attentional effects of more posterior lesions are less clear. The aim of this study was to characterize visual processing speed and appre......Objective: Impaired visual attention is common following strokes in the territory of the middle cerebral artery, particularly in the right hemisphere. However, attentional effects of more posterior lesions are less clear. The aim of this study was to characterize visual processing speed...... and apprehension span following posterior cerebral artery (PCA) stroke. We also relate these attentional parameters to visual word recognition, as previous studies have suggested that reduced visual speed and span may explain pure alexia. Methods: Nine patients with MR-verified focal lesions in the PCA......-territory (four left PCA; four right PCA; one bilateral, all >1 year post stroke) were compared to 25 controls using single case statistics. Visual attention was characterized by a whole report paradigm allowing for hemifield-specific speed and span measurements. We also characterized visual field defects...

Full Text Available Our ability to see meaningful actions when presented with pointlight traces of human movement is commonly referred to as the perception of biological motion. While traditionalexplanations have emphasized the spontaneous and automatic nature of this ability, morerecent findings suggest that attention may play a larger role than is typically assumed. Intwo studies we show that the speed and accuracy of responding to point-light stimuli is highly correlated with the ability to control selective attention. In our first experiment we measured thresholds for determining the walking direction of a masked point-light figure, and performance on a range of attention-related tasks in the same set of observers. Mask-density thresholds for the direction discrimination task varied quite considerably from observer to observer and this variation was highly correlated with performance on both Stroop and flanker interference tasks. Other components of attention, such as orienting, alerting and visual search efficiency, showed no such relationship. In a second experiment, we examined the relationship between the ability to determine the orientation of unmasked point-light actions and Stroop interference, again finding a strong correlation. Our results are consistent with previous research suggesting that biological motion processing may requite attention, and specifically implicate networks of attention related to executive control and selection.

Anxiety has wide-reaching and complex effects on cognitive performance. Although it can intrude on cognition and interfere with performance, it can also facilitate information processing and behavioural responses. In a previous study, we showed that anxiety induced by threat of shock facilitates performance on the Sustained Attention to Response Task, a vigilance test, which probes response inhibition to infrequent nogo stimuli. The present study sought to identify factors that may have contributed to such improved performance, including on- and off-task thinking (assessed with thought probes) and individual differences in attention control, as measured with the Attention Control Scale. Replicating our prior finding, we showed that shock threat significantly reduced errors of commission on the nogo trials. However, we extended this finding in demonstrating that this effect was driven by subjects with low attention control. We therefore confirm that anxiety increases inhibitory control of prepotent responses--a mechanism which is adaptive under threat--and show that this effect is greater in those who rely more upon such prepotent responding, i.e., those with low attentional control.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Coherent Logix, Incorporated proposes the Software Defined Common Processing System (SDCPS) program to facilitate the development of a Software Defined Radio...

Full Text Available ABSTRACT Creativity and innovation are now required given the new configurations in work processes, in organizational formats, in physical and intangible technologies, as well as in products and markets. In parallel with the growing centrality and interest in the phenomena of creativity and innovation, a broadening of its concepts is observed. The inflation and trivialization of uses tend to make them self-explanatory and not very enlightening regarding situations to which they apply and the associated effects. The lack of conceptual clarity thus contributes both to undermining policies to promote creativity and innovation in organizations, as well as to hinder the employees' adherence to such policies. The study aimed to characterize the key elements of workers' informal definitions of creativity and innovation, and identify their alignment with definitions and theoretical perspectives. The study included 231 workers from Portuguese-, Spanish-, and Basque-speaking countries, aged 22-75 years. The qualitative data analysis software ATLAS.ti 7 was used for coding and categorization. One point of convergence with the specialized literature was that creativity and innovation strongly associated with novelty in the development of an idea / product / process / service. Creativity, however, is defined more in terms of dispositional factors rather than contextual and situational factors, diverging from current theoretical perspectives. Planning as a key aspect for organizational innovation development is practically absent from the workers' definitions. It discusses some impacts of these settings for organizational management practices.

In the last few decades several techniques for image content extraction, often based on segmentation, have been proposed. It has been suggested that under the assumption of very general image content, segmentation becomes unstable and classification becomes unreliable. According to recent psychological theories, certain image regions attract the attention of human observers more than others and, generally, the image main meaning appears concentrated in those regions. Initially, regions attracting our attention are perceived as a whole and hypotheses on their content are formulated; successively the components of those regions are carefully analyzed and a more precise interpretation is reached. It is interesting to observe that an image decomposition process performed according to these psychological visual attention theories might present advantages with respect to a traditional segmentation approach. In this paper we propose an automatic procedure generating image decomposition based on the detection of visual attention regions. A new clustering algorithm taking advantage of the Delaunay- Voronoi diagrams for achieving the decomposition target is proposed. By applying that algorithm recursively, starting from the whole image, a transformation of the image into a tree of related meaningful regions is obtained (Attention Tree). Successively, a semantic interpretation of the leaf nodes is carried out by using a structure of Neural Networks (Neural Tree) assisted by a knowledge base (Ontology Net). Starting from leaf nodes, paths toward the root node across the Attention Tree are attempted. The task of the path consists in relating the semantics of each child-parent node pair and, consequently, in merging the corresponding image regions. The relationship detected in this way between two tree nodes generates, as a result, the extension of the interpreted image area through each step of the path. The construction of several Attention Trees has been performed and partial

"The Advanced Montessori Method, Volume 1" was published in 1918 in English and is considered a seminal work along with "The Montessori Method." In the foreword to this book, Mario Montessori writes: "...the refulgent figure of the child, Dr. Montessori pointed out, who had found his own path to mental health, who…

Flood resilience has become an internationally used term with an ever-increasing number of entries on the Internet. The SMARTeST Project is looking at approaches to flood resilience through case studies at cities in various countries, including Washington D.C. in the United States. In light of U.S. experiences a methodology is being proposed by the author that is intended to meet ecologic, spatial, structural, social, disaster relief and flood risk aspects. It concludes that: "Flood resilience combines (1) spatial, (2) structural, (3) social, and (4) risk management levels of flood preparedness." Flood resilience should incorporate all four levels, but not necessarily with equal emphasis. Stakeholders can assign priorities within different flood resilience levels and the considerations they contain, dividing 100% emphasis into four levels. This evaluation would be applied to planned and completed projects, considering existing conditions, goals and concepts. We have long known that the "road to market" for the implementation of flood resilience is linked to capacity building of stakeholders. It is a multidisciplinary enterprise, involving the integration of all the above aspects into the decision-making process. Traditional flood management has largely been influenced by what in the UK has been called "Silo Thinking", involving constituent organizations that are responsible for different elements, and are interested only in their defined part of the system. This barrier to innovation also has been called the "entrapment effect". Flood resilience is being defined as (1) SPATIAL FLOOD RESILIENCE implying the management of land by floodplain zoning, urban greening and management to reduce storm runoff through depression storage and by practicing Sustainable Urban Drainage (SUD's), Best Management Practices (BMP's, or Low Impact Development (LID). Ecologic processes and cultural elements are included. (2) STRUCTURAL FLOOD RESILIENCE referring to permanent flood defense

The purpose of the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project Public Affairs Plan is to establish goals for the Fiscal Year 1995 UMTRA public affairs program and identify specific activities to be conducted during the year. It also describes the roles of various agencies involved in the conduct of the public affairs program and defines the functions of the Technical Assistance Contractor (TAC) Public Affairs Department. It integrates and replaces the Public Participation Plan (DOE/AL/62350-47D) and Public Information Plan (DOE/AL/623590-71). The plan describes the US Department of Energy`s (DOE) plans to keep stakeholders and other members of the public informed about project policies, plans, and activities, and provide opportunities for stakeholders and interested segments of the public to participate in project decision-making processes. The plan applies to the UMTRA Project Office; the DOE Albuquerque Operations Office, Office of Intergovernmental and External Affairs (OIEA); the UMTRA TAC; the UMTRA Remedial Action Contractor (RAC); and other cooperating agencies.

Computers in hospitals offer Nursing a unique challenge to define and validate its own practice. This definition will begin first within those hospitals implementing computer systems with nursing applications. These first pioneers must take great care to develop application content that reflects valid nursing roles and to communicate to each practitioner the standards of practice which will guide the planning and delivery of quality nursing care.

Activity planning for missions such as the Mars Exploration Rover mission presents many technical challenges, including oversubscription, consideration of time, concurrency, resources, preferences, and uncertainty. These challenges have all been addressed by the research community to varying degrees, but significant technical hurdles still remain. In addition, the integration of these capabilities into a single planning engine remains largely unaddressed. However, I argue that there is a deeper set of issues that needs to be considered namely the integration of planning into an iterative process that begins before the goals, objectives, and preferences are fully defined. This introduces a number of technical challenges for planning, including the ability to more naturally specify and utilize constraints on the planning process, the ability to generate multiple qualitatively different plans, and the ability to provide deep explanation of plans.

US Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior — The Swan Lake National Wildlife Refuge Safety Plan discusses policies for the safety of the station employees, volunteers, and public. This plan seeks to identify...

To solve societal problems, both local and global, a global approach is needed. Serious diseases that are crippling present-day problem solving and planning are discussed, and the characteristics of a healthy, effective planning approach are described. (RM)

Accurate preoperative planning is mandatory for orthognathic surgery. One of the most important aims of this planning process is obtaining good postoperative dental occlusion. Recently, 3D image-based planning systems have been introduced that enable a surgeon to define different osteotomy planes pr

Many libraries have disaster recovery plans, but not all have prevention and action plans to prepare for an emergency in advance. This article presents the author's review of the prevention and action plans of several libraries: (1) Evergreen State College; (2) Interlochen Public Library; (3) University of Maryland, Baltimore-Marshall Law Library;…

Many libraries have disaster recovery plans, but not all have prevention and action plans to prepare for an emergency in advance. This article presents the author's review of the prevention and action plans of several libraries: (1) Evergreen State College; (2) Interlochen Public Library; (3) University of Maryland, Baltimore-Marshall Law Library;…

Deficient selection against irrelevant information has been proposed to underlie age-related cognitive decline. We recently reported evidence for maintained early sensory selection when older and younger adults used spatial selective attention to perform a challenging task. Here we explored age-related differences when spatial selection is not possible and feature-selective attention must be deployed. We additionally compared the integrity of feedforward processing by exploiting the well established phenomenon of suppression of visual cortical responses attributable to interstimulus competition. Electroencephalogram was measured while older and younger human adults responded to brief occurrences of coherent motion in an attended stimulus composed of randomly moving, orientation-defined, flickering bars. Attention was directed to horizontal or vertical bars by a pretrial cue, after which two orthogonally oriented, overlapping stimuli or a single stimulus were presented. Horizontal and vertical bars flickered at different frequencies and thereby elicited separable steady-state visual-evoked potentials, which were used to examine the effect of feature-based selection and the competitive influence of a second stimulus on ongoing visual processing. Age differences were found in feature-selective attentional modulation of visual responses: older adults did not show consistent modulation of magnitude or phase. In contrast, the suppressive effect of a second stimulus was robust and comparable in magnitude across age groups, suggesting that bottom-up processing of the current stimuli is essentially unchanged in healthy old age. Thus, it seems that visual processing per se is unchanged, but top-down attentional control is compromised in older adults when space cannot be used to guide selection.

Full Text Available The purpose of this article is to present the main aspects regarding project planning. This study is generally based on the fourth edition of the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide developed by the Project Management Institute (PMI in 2008. According to this edition of PMBOK, project planning involves a group of processes required to establish the scope of the project, refine the objectives, and define the actions that must be undertaken to attain the objectives of the project.

Manufacturing process, milestones and inputs are unknowns to first-time users of the manufacturing facilities. The Manufacturing Planning Guide aids in establishing expectations for both NASA and non-NASA facility customers. The potential audience for this guide includes both internal and commercial spaceflight hardware/software developers. It is intended to assist their project engineering personnel in manufacturing planning and execution. Material covered includes a roadmap of the manufacturing process, roles and responsibilities of facility and user, major milestones, facility capabilities, and inputs required by the facility. Samples of deliverables, products, and inputs necessary to define test scope, cost, and schedule are included as an appendix to the guide.

One of the most common forms of synesthesia is between colors and graphemes (Colizoli, Murre, & Rouw, 2012). Numerous studies have investigated different aspects of attention and synesthesia, e.g. effects of Stroop-like interference by colors that are incongruent with the synesthetic experience....... Here we attempt to isolate how speci¿ c components of attention are affected by grapheme-color synesthesia. Eight carefully screened healthy participants with synesthesia reported the letters in brie¿ y presented, post-masked arrays of letters and digits. On half the trials, the letters and digits were...... presented in colors congruent with the synesthetic experience. On the other half of the trials, the letters and digits were presented in colors that were incongruent with the synesthetic experience. Components of attention were estimated separately for congruent and incongruent trials by ¿ tting the data...

Disturbances of the analyst's attention and interferences in the interpretation process are correlated with narcissistic resistances (NR). Interpretation is considered, not only as verbal communication about the patient's unconscious contents, but also as the analyst's instrument to re-establish subject-object discrimination, altered by the archaic aspects of transference. Different types of NR lead to different transference configurations, with specific patterns of involvement of the analyst. The author describes the characteristics of the object relationships in patients with NR predominance and some genetic hypotheses are proposed. The analyst's tolerance of primitive mental functioning, his permeability and capacity to sustain evenly suspended attention are correlated; a comparison is drawn with some neurophysiological findings about attention. Finally, the importance of temporality in these functions is discussed, with some thoughts regarding its role in the outcome of the analyses mentioned by Freud in 'Analysis terminable and interminable'.

Full Text Available The human attentional system can be subdivided into three functional networks of alerting, orienting, and executive control. Although these networks have been extensively studied in the visuospatial modality, whether the same mechanisms are deployed across different sensory modalities remains unclear. In this study we used the attention network test for visuospatial modality, in addition to two auditory variants with spatial and frequency manipulations to examine cross-modal correlations between network functions. Results showed that among the visual and auditory tasks the effects of executive control, but not effects of alerting and orienting were significantly correlated. These findings suggest that while alerting and orienting functions rely more upon modality specific processes, the executive control of attention coordinates complex behavior via supramodal mechanisms.

The paper reviews literature relating to selective attention in the learning disabled child. Three processes related to the concept of selective attention (as proposed by D. Berlyne) are discussed: attention in learning, attention in remembering, and attention in performance. It is pointed out that verbal mediation, the use of verbal labels to…

Three experiments tested whether the attentional blink (AB; a deficit in reporting the second of two targets when it occurs 200-500 msec after the first) can be attenuated by providing information about the target onset asynchrony (TOA) of the second target relative to the first. Blocking the TOA di

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and its earlier nosologic classifications have been extensively investigated since the 1960s, with PubMed listings alone exceeding 13,000 entries. Strides have been made in the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD in individuals with intellectual function in the normal range, as described in companion…

Describes a demonstration to illustrate the importance of knowing what is supposed to be learned before studying begins. Suggests that the exercise may be used to show the basic elements of a scientific experiment. Explains that attention's effect upon memory is shown by students' tendency to remember best what they are told to remember. (DK)

We investigated the effects of instructions to "stay on task" on preschoolers' attention and cognitive performance in the face of either incomprehensible or comprehensible distraction. Three- and 4-year-olds completed problem-solving tasks while a distracting event played continuously in the background under conditions of (a) no instruction, (b)…

The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) has developed a marketing plan to define how BPA can be viable and competitive in the future, a result important to BPA`s customers and constituents. The Marketing Plan represents the preferred customer outcomes, marketplace achievements, and competitive advantage required to accomplish the Vision and the Strategic Business Objectives of the agency. The Marketing Plan contributes to successful implementation of BPA`s Strategic Business Objectives (SBOs) by providing common guidance to organizations and activities throughout the agency responsible for (1) planning, constructing, operating, and maintaining the Federal Columbia River Power System; (2) conducting business with BPA`s customers; and (3) providing required internal support services.

Full Text Available Attention is a key process used to conceptualize and define modes of thought, but we lack information on the role of specific attentional processes on preferential choice and memory in multi-attribute decision making. In this study, we examine the role of attention based on two dimensions, attentional scope and load on choice preference strength and memory using a paradigm that arguably elicits unconscious thought. Scope of attention was manipulated by using global or local processing during distraction (Experiment 1 and before the information encoding stage (Experiment 2. Load was manipulated by using the n-back task in Experiment 1. Results from Experiment 1 show that global processing or distributed attention during distraction results in stronger preference irrespective of load but better memory only at low cognitive load. Task difficulty or load did not have any effect on preference or memory. In Experiment 2, distributed attention before attribute encoding facilitated only memory but did not influence preference. Results show that attentional processes at different stages of processing like distraction and information-encoding influence decision making processes. Scope of attention not only influences preference and memory but the manner in which attentional scope influences them depends on both load and stage of information processing. The results indicate the important role of attention in processes critical for decision making and calls for a re-evaluation of the unconscious thought theory (UTT and the need for reconceptualizing the role of attention.

In order to improve responsibility of the workers for strict observance of the standards, rules and instruction for work safety, the Karlov NKGRE has introduced a number of indicators under socialist competition: lack of injuries, accidents, complications, fulfillment of organizational-technical measures of a comprehensive plan and collective contract, preventive maintenance schedule and instructions of the agencies of inspection and public inspectors. The organization of prevention of production injury is based on the principle ''for each object constant attention to work safety and supervisory monitoring.'' Monitoring of the condition of accident prevention is done by 69 public inspectors under the control of the commission of work safety made of 9 people. The work of the commission is done according to quarterly and annual plans. The commission reveals shortcomings, introduces specific suggestions, for example regarding reconstruction of the ventilation of the sharpener, the mechanism of pipe feed to the pipe cutting machine, etc. One of the main tasks of the commission is to participate in the rapid control of the condition of work safety at the work sites. For achievements in work to create good working and living conditions, the collective of the Karlov NKGRE was awarded certificates of the AUCCTU, the Ukrainian SSR Ministry of Geology and the USSR Ministry of Geology, as well as group and republic committees of the trade unions.

Human and automated tutors attempt to choose pedagogical activities that will maximize student learning, informed by their estimates of the student's current knowledge. There has been substantial research on tracking and modeling student learning, but significantly less attention on how to plan teaching actions and how the assumed student model…

Full Text Available This study focuses on the role of attentional processes in arithmetical skills and examines if training of basic attentive skills may improve also working memory abilities reducing arithmetic difficulties. In order to study the efficacy of attentional treatment in arithmetic achievement and in enhancing working memory abilities a test-treatment-retest quasi experimental design was adopted. The research involved 14 children, attending fourth and fifth grades, with Arithmetical Learning Disabilities (ALD assigned to experimental and control conditions. The numerical comprehension and calculation processes were assessed using the ABCA battery (Lucangeli, Tressoldi, & Fiore, 1998. Attentional abilities were evaluated using a multitask computerized assessment battery Attenzione e Concentrazione (Di Nuovo, 2000. WM abilities were evaluated by Listening span task, Digit span backward, Making verbal trails and Making colour trails. The results showed that intensive computerized attention training increased basic attentive skills and arithmetical performances with respect to numeric system in children with ALD. No effect on working memory abilities was found. Results are also important from a clinical perspective, since they may suggest strategies for planning individualized training programs.

We review a statistical machine learning model of top-down task driven attention based on the notion of ‘gist’. In this framework we consider the task to be represented as a classification problem with two sets of features — a gist of coarse grained global features and a larger set of low...

Memory retrieval often enhances still later memory as evidenced by the testing effect. Divided attention (DA) is known to produce different effects on encoding and retrieval, substantially disrupting the former and often producing little effect on the latter. The present experiments examine whether the mnemonic consequences of retrieval are…

Cognitive theory from the field of general anxiety suggests that the tendency to display attentional bias toward negative information results in anxiety. Accordingly, the current study aims to investigate whether attentional bias is involved in math anxiety (MA) as well (i.e., a persistent negative reaction to math). Twenty seven participants (14 with high levels of MA and 13 with low levels of MA) were presented with a novel computerized numerical version of the well established dot probe task. One of six types of prime stimuli, either math related or typically neutral, was presented on one side of a computer screen. The prime was preceded by a probe (either one or two asterisks) that appeared in either the prime or the opposite location. Participants had to discriminate probe identity (one or two asterisks). Math anxious individuals reacted faster when the probe was at the location of the numerical related stimuli. This suggests the existence of attentional bias in MA. That is, for math anxious individuals, the cognitive system selectively favored the processing of emotionally negative information (i.e., math related words). These findings suggest that attentional bias is linked to unduly intense MA symptoms. PMID:26528208

Full Text Available Cognitive theory from the field of general anxiety suggests that the tendency to display attentional bias toward negative information results in anxiety. Accordingly, the current study aims to investigate whether attentional bias is involved in math anxiety as well (i.e., a persistent negative reaction to math. Twenty seven participants (14 with high levels of math anxiety and 13 with low levels of math anxiety were presented with a novel computerized numerical version of the well established dot probe task. One of 6 types of prime stimuli, either math related or typically neutral, were presented on one side of a computer screen. The prime was preceded by a probe (either one or two asterisks that appeared in either the prime or the opposite location. Participants had to discriminate probe identity (one or two asterisks. Math anxious individuals reacted faster when the probe was at the location of the numerical related stimuli. This suggests the existence of attentional bias in math anxiety. That is, for math anxious individuals, the cognitive system selectively favored the processing of emotionally negative information (i.e., math related words. These findings suggest that attentional bias is linked to unduly intense math anxiety symptoms.

The association of specific academic deficits with attention deficit disorder (ADD) subtypes was determined in 20 students (ages 8-12) with ADD with hyperactivity (ADD/H) compared to 20 with ADD without hyperactivity (ADD/noH), at the Department of Educational Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, TX.

This work examines how a better understanding of visual perception and attention can impact visualization design. In a collection of studies, I explore how different levels of the visual system can measurably affect a variety of visualization metrics. The results show that expert preference, user performance, and even computational performance are…

We tested 3 mechanisms of involuntary attention: (1) a perceptual enhancement mechanism, (2) a response-decision mechanism, and (3) a serial-search mechanism. Experiment 1 used a response deadline technique to compare the perceptual enhancement and the decision mechanisms and found evidence consistent with the decision mechanism. Experiment 2 used…

The concepts of God and Devil are well known across many cultures and religions, and often involve spatial metaphors, but it is not well known if our mental representations of these concepts affect visual cognition. To examine if exposure to divine concepts produces shifts of attention, participants completed a target detection task in which they…

This work examines how a better understanding of visual perception and attention can impact visualization design. In a collection of studies, I explore how different levels of the visual system can measurably affect a variety of visualization metrics. The results show that expert preference, user performance, and even computational performance are…

Cognitive theory from the field of general anxiety suggests that the tendency to display attentional bias toward negative information results in anxiety. Accordingly, the current study aims to investigate whether attentional bias is involved in math anxiety (MA) as well (i.e., a persistent negative reaction to math). Twenty seven participants (14 with high levels of MA and 13 with low levels of MA) were presented with a novel computerized numerical version of the well established dot probe task. One of six types of prime stimuli, either math related or typically neutral, was presented on one side of a computer screen. The prime was preceded by a probe (either one or two asterisks) that appeared in either the prime or the opposite location. Participants had to discriminate probe identity (one or two asterisks). Math anxious individuals reacted faster when the probe was at the location of the numerical related stimuli. This suggests the existence of attentional bias in MA. That is, for math anxious individuals, the cognitive system selectively favored the processing of emotionally negative information (i.e., math related words). These findings suggest that attentional bias is linked to unduly intense MA symptoms.

Attention to a task, and the language it requires to be performed, can be described in relation to two theoretical models which have prompted research into the effects of task demands on learning and performance outside the field of second language acquisition (SLA). These are the SEEV (selection, effort, expectancy and value) model of selective…

The purpose of the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project Public Affairs Plan is to establish goals for the fiscal year (FY) 1996 UMTRA Project public affairs program and to identify specific activities to be conducted during the year. It describes the roles of various agencies involved in the public affairs program and defines the functions of the UMTRA Project Technical Assistance Contractor (TAC) Public Affairs Department. It replaces the FY 1995 Public Affairs Plan (DOE/AL/62350-154). The plan also describes the US Department of Energy`s (DOE) plans to keep stakeholders and other members of the public informed about UMTRA Project policies, plans, and activities, and provide opportunities for stakeholders and interested segments of the public to participate in UMTRA Project decision-making processes. The plan applies to the UMTRA Project Team; the DOE Grand Junction Projects Office (GJPO); the DOE Albuquerque Operations Office, Office of Public Affairs (OPA); the TAC; the UMTRA Project Remedial Action Contractor (RAC); and other cooperating agencies.

Full Text Available Abstract Background The aim of the study was to assess the attentional requirements of steady state treadmill walking in human subjects using a dual task paradigm. The extent of decrement of a secondary (cognitive RT task provides a measure of the attentional resources required to maintain performance of the primary (locomotor task. Varying the level of difficulty of the reaction time (RT task is used to verify the priority of allocation of attentional resources. Methods 11 healthy adult subjects were required to walk while simultaneously performing a RT task. Participants were instructed to bite a pressure transducer placed in the mouth as quickly as possible in response to an unpredictable electrical stimulation applied on the back of the neck. Each subject was tested under five different experimental conditions: simple RT task alone and while walking, recognition RT task alone and while walking, walking alone. A foot switch system composed of a pressure sensitive sensor was placed under the heel and forefoot of each foot to determine the gait cycle duration. Results Gait cycle duration was unchanged (p > 0.05 by the addition of the RT task. Regardless of the level of difficulty of the RT task, the RTs were longer during treadmill walking than in sitting conditions (p 0.05 was found between the attentional demand of the walking task and the decrement of performance found in the RT task under varying levels of difficulty. This finding suggests that the healthy subjects prioritized the control of walking at the expense of cognitive performance. Conclusion We conclude that treadmill walking in young adults is not a purely automatic task. The methodology and outcome measures used in this study provide an assessment of the attentional resources required by walking on the treadmill at a steady state.

Place-related concepts are factors in public involvement, conflict, recreation management, recreation displacement, landscape planning and design. This has captured the attention of researchers and managers. We posit that planning and management of public lands requires an understanding of what it is about the lands that people value and care about. In this paper we...

Several approaches exist to solve Artificial Intelligence planning problems, but little attention has been given to the combination of using landmark knowledge and satisfiability (SAT). Landmark knowledge has been exploited successfully in the heuristics of classical planning. Recently it was also s

One of the defining cognitive characteristics of the chromosome 22q deletion syndrome (DS22q11.2) is visuospatial processing impairments. The purpose of this study was to investigate and extend the specific attentional profile of children with this disorder using both an object-based attention task and an inhibition of return task. A group of…

The process of strategic planning has been addressed by many authors in the international specialty literature, aspects as planning’s typology, stages or advantages for companies having been analysed and described in various management - marketing scientific articles or books. The present paper tries to define the concepts of strategic planning, long-term planning, and marketing planning, by highlighting their content and the differences between them, in terms of time or level of implementing...

Full Text Available The article defines the terminology of the strategic planning at sports organizations and puts an accent on its specifics. The first part explains what is planning and its functions in the strategic management in order to further put a light on the theoretic terminology of strategic planning and strategic management as well as to explain the relation between them. In the second part the phases of the planning in sports are revised as follows: (1 preplanning phase, (2 strategy formulating phase, (3 implementing strategy phase, and (4 evaluation and control of the planned assignments. The last part of the article is dedicated to concluding revisions. The conclusions from the researches of this complex problematic are given by number in a long-term view of the strategic planning in sport organizations.

Full Text Available A territory, a city, a neighbourhood are all ecosystems; a mixture of chemico-physical and organic elements related to each other. That which defines an ecological system is the set of rules and characteristics which condition its relationships, and its duration in time is guaranteed by its efficiency and internal organization which applied to the city is translated in the reduction of the use of natural resources and in the increase of social organization. To increase the efficiency of the urban systems is the necessary condition for the formulation of ecological city planning favouring the maximum liveability of sites. Liveability is directly correlated to the optimization of numerous elements (public space, equipment, services, building techniques, innovative technology, social cohesion, biodiversity. To carry out such objectives, ecological city planning proposes a new model of town planning on three levels (subsoil, ground level, and upper level.

It has previously been shown that language production, performed simultaneously with a nonlinguistic task, involves sustained attention. Sustained attention concerns the ability to maintain alertness over time. Here, we aimed to replicate the previous finding by showing that individuals call upon sustained attention when they plan single noun phrases (e.g., "the carrot") and perform a manual arrow categorization task. In addition, we investigated whether speakers also recruit sustained attention when they produce conjoined noun phrases (e.g., "the carrot and the bucket") describing two pictures, that is, when both the first and second task are linguistic. We found that sustained attention correlated with the proportion of abnormally slow phrase-production responses. Individuals with poor sustained attention displayed a greater number of very slow responses than individuals with better sustained attention. Importantly, this relationship was obtained both for the production of single phrases while performing a nonlinguistic manual task, and the production of noun phrase conjunctions in referring to two spatially separated objects. Inhibition and updating abilities were also measured. These scores did not correlate with our measure of sustained attention, suggesting that sustained attention and executive control are distinct. Overall, the results suggest that planning conjoined noun phrases involves sustained attention, and that language production happens less automatically than has often been assumed.

This review focuses on covert attention and how it alters early vision. I explain why attention is considered a selective process, the constructs of covert attention, spatial endogenous and exogenous attention, and feature-based attention. I explain how in the last 25 years research on attention has characterized the effects of covert attention on spatial filters and how attention influences the selection of stimuli of interest. This review includes the effects of spatial attention on discriminability and appearance in tasks mediated by contrast sensitivity and spatial resolution; the effects of feature-based attention on basic visual processes, and a comparison of the effects of spatial and feature-based attention. The emphasis of this review is on psychophysical studies, but relevant electrophysiological and neuroimaging studies and models regarding how and where neuronal responses are modulated are also discussed. PMID:21549742

Understanding the mechanisms supporting our comprehension of magnitude information represents a key goal in cognitive psychology. A major phenomenon employed in the pursuit of this goal has been the physical size congruity effect-namely, the observation that comparing the relative numerical sizes of two numbers is influenced by their relative physical sizes. The standard account of the physical size congruity effect attributes it to the automatic influence of the comparison of irrelevant physical magnitudes on numerical judgments. Here we develop an alternative account of this effect on the basis of the operation of attention in the typical size congruity display and the temporal dynamics of number comparison. We also provide a test of a number of predictions derived from this alternative account by combining a physical size congruity manipulation with a manipulation designed to alter the operation of attention within the typical size congruity display (i.e., a manipulation of the relative onsets of the digits). This test provides evidence consistent with an attentional contribution to the size congruity effect. Implications for our understanding of magnitude and the interactions between attention and magnitude are discussed.

Knuth has introduced attribute grammars (AGs) as a tool to define the semanitcs of context-free languages. The use of AGs in connection with programming language definitions has mostly been to define the context-sensitive syntax of the language and to define a translation in code for a hypothetical...

Critical moments in life define one's character and clarify true values. Reflective leadership is espoused as an important practice for transformational leaders. Professional development educators can help surface and explore defining moments, strengthen leadership behavior with defining moments as a catalyst for change, and create safe spaces for leaders to expand their leadership capacity.

great variability in performance in reactiontime tasks. Aiming to investigate fluctuation of attention in PD, we re- analysed data from a cue-target reactiontime task, specifically searching for differences in variability between patients and controls. The subjects included were a representative group...... a significant difference (pattention might be fluctuating on a moment to moment basis in PD. Some of the PD patients have also been tested with a choice reaction time...... task, shown by Walker et al. (2000) to be sensi- tive to fluctuation of cognition in DLB patients. Preliminary data-analysis indicate that PD patients also show considerable intra-individual variation in performance on this test. These findings suggest that fluctuating attention and cogni- tion...

Full Text Available Functional neuroimaging studies have indicated the involvement of separate brain areas in three distinct attention systems: alerting, orienting and executive control (EC. However, the structural correlates underlying attention remains unexplored. Here, we utilized graph theory to examine the neuroanatomical substrates of the three attention systems measured by attention network test (ANT in 65 healthy subjects. White matter connectivity, assessed with DTI deterministic tractography was modeled as a structural network comprising 90 nodes defined by the Automated Anatomical Labeling (AAL template. Linear regression analyses were conducted to explore the relationship between topological parameters and the three attentional effects. We found a significant positive correlation between EC function and global efficiency of the whole brain network. At the regional level, node-specific correlations were discovered between regional efficiency and all three ANT components, including dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus, thalamus and parahippocampal gyrus for EC, thalamus and inferior parietal gyrus for alerting, and paracentral lobule and inferior occipital gyrus for orienting. Our findings highlight the fundamental architecture of interregional structural connectivity involved in attention and could provide new insights into the anatomical basis underlying human behavior.

The interhemispheric organisation of two specific components of attention was investigated in three patients affected by partial or complete agenesis of the corpus callosum. A visuospatial component of attention was explored using a visual search paradigm in which target and distractors were displayed either unilaterally within a single visual hemifield, or bilaterally across both visual hemifields in light of prior work indicating that split-brain patients were twice as fast to scan bilateral displays compared to unilateral displays. A central component of attention was explored using a psychological refractory period (PRP) paradigm in which two visual stimuli were presented laterally at various stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs), with each stimulus associated with a different speeded two-alternative choice task. The stimulus-response compatibility in the second task was systematically manipulated in this paradigm, in light of prior work indicating that split-brain patients exhibited a close-to-normal PRP effect (i.e., slowing of the second response as SOA is decreased), with, however, abnormally decreasing effects of the manipulation of the response mapping on the second task speed as SOA was decreased. The present results showed that, although generally slower than normals in carrying out the two tasks, the performance of each of the three acallosal patients was formally equivalent to the performance of a matched control group of normal individuals. In the visual search task, the search rate of the acallosal patients was the same for unilateral and bilateral displays. Furthermore, in the PRP task, there was more mutual interference between the lateralised tasks for the acallosal patients than that evidenced in the performance of the matched control group. It is concluded that the visuospatial component and the central component of attention in agenesis of the corpus callosum are interhemispherically integrated systems.

Bodily movement has long been employed as a foundation for cultivating mental skills such as attention, self-control or mindfulness, with recent studies documenting the positive impacts of mindful movement training, such as yoga and tai chi. A parallel “mind-body connection” has also been observed in many developmental disorders. We elaborate a spectrum of mindfulness by considering ADHD, in which deficient motor control correlates with impaired (disinhibited) behavioral control contributing ...

While most parents would agree that playing videos games is the antithesis of time well spent for their children, recent advances involving NASA biofeedback technology are proving otherwise. The same techniques used to measure brain activity in NASA pilots during flight simulation exercises are now a part of a revolutionary video game system that is helping to improve overall mental awareness for Americans of all ages, including those who suffer from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Conservation planning, the process of deciding how to protect, conserve, enhance and(or) minimize loss of natural and cultural resources, is a fundamental process to achieve conservation success in a time of rapid environmental change. Conservation targets, the measurable expressions of desired resource conditions, are an important tool in biological planning to achieve effective outcomes. Conservation targets provide a focus for planning, design, conservation action, and collaborative monitoring of environmental trends to guide landscape-scale conservation to improve the quality and quantity of key ecological and cultural resources. It is essential to have an iterative and inclusive method to define conservation targets that is replicable and allows for the evaluation of the effectiveness of conservation targets over time. In this document, we describe a process that can be implemented to achieve landscape-scale conservation, which includes defining conservation targets. We also describe what has been accomplished to date (September 2015) through this process for the Peninsular Florida Landscape Conservation Cooperative (PFLCC).

Full Text Available Pedophilic disorder, a subtype of paraphilia, is defined as a recurrent sexual interest in prepubescent children, which is characterized by persistent thoughts, fantasies, urges, sexual arousal or behavior. Besides a deviant sexual preference, sexual preoccupation was found to be a dynamic risk factor for reoffending. Thus, it is conceivable that sex offenders and especially sex offenders against children have difficulties to control their responses to sexual stimuli. In the current study pedophiles, forensic and non-forensic control subjects had to solve a cognitive task while sexual distractors were presented simultaneously. This kind of task also requires control functions. Therefore, data was analyzed with respect to attentional control while comparing eye movements towards sexual distractors and towards the cognitive task. We were mainly interested in how early (fixation latency and late (relative fixation time attentional processes were allocated to both, the cognitive target stimuli and the sexual distractors. Pedophiles demonstrated significantly lower attentional control in the sexual distractor task than both control groups (non-pedophiles. They showed a shorter fixation latency and longer fixation time for sexual distractors than non-pedophiles. Furthermore, pedophiles demonstrated a longer fixation latency and shorter fixation time for cognitive target stimuli. For classification analyses, an attention control index (ACI was built, i.e. the difference between eye movements on cognitive target stimuli and sexual distractors. For the ACI of early attentional processes, i.e. fixation latency, a good classification between pedophiles and non-pedophiles was found. We assumed that the measured attentional control represents inhibitory executive functions, specifically interference control. Further studies should examine if low attentional control in pedophiles is due to low motivation to solve the task or rather to a lack of ability to

Pedophilic disorder, a subtype of paraphilia, is defined as a recurrent sexual interest in prepubescent children, which is characterized by persistent thoughts, fantasies, urges, sexual arousal, or behavior. Besides a deviant sexual preference, sexual preoccupation was found to be a dynamic risk factor for reoffending. Thus, it is conceivable that sex offenders and especially sex offenders against children have difficulties to control their responses to sexual stimuli. In the current study pedophiles, forensic and non-forensic control subjects had to solve a cognitive task, while sexual distractors were presented simultaneously. This kind of task also requires control functions. Therefore, data were analyzed with respect to attentional control while comparing eye movements toward sexual distractors and toward the cognitive task. We were mainly interested in how early (fixation latency) and late (relative fixation time) attentional processes were allocated to both, the cognitive target stimuli and the sexual distractors. Pedophiles demonstrated significantly lower attentional control in the sexual distractor task than both control groups (non-pedophiles). They showed a shorter fixation latency and longer fixation time for sexual distractors than non-pedophiles. Furthermore, pedophiles demonstrated a longer fixation latency and shorter fixation time for cognitive target stimuli. For classification analyses, an attentional control index (ACI) was built, i.e., the difference between eye movements on cognitive target stimuli and sexual distractors. For the ACI of early attentional processes, i.e., fixation latency, a good classification between pedophiles and non-pedophiles was found. We assumed that the measured attentional control represents inhibitory executive functions, specifically interference control. Further studies should examine if low attentional control in pedophiles is due to low motivation to solve the task or rather to a lack of ability to control

Pedophilic disorder, a subtype of paraphilia, is defined as a recurrent sexual interest in prepubescent children, which is characterized by persistent thoughts, fantasies, urges, sexual arousal, or behavior. Besides a deviant sexual preference, sexual preoccupation was found to be a dynamic risk factor for reoffending. Thus, it is conceivable that sex offenders and especially sex offenders against children have difficulties to control their responses to sexual stimuli. In the current study pedophiles, forensic and non-forensic control subjects had to solve a cognitive task, while sexual distractors were presented simultaneously. This kind of task also requires control functions. Therefore, data were analyzed with respect to attentional control while comparing eye movements toward sexual distractors and toward the cognitive task. We were mainly interested in how early (fixation latency) and late (relative fixation time) attentional processes were allocated to both, the cognitive target stimuli and the sexual distractors. Pedophiles demonstrated significantly lower attentional control in the sexual distractor task than both control groups (non-pedophiles). They showed a shorter fixation latency and longer fixation time for sexual distractors than non-pedophiles. Furthermore, pedophiles demonstrated a longer fixation latency and shorter fixation time for cognitive target stimuli. For classification analyses, an attentional control index (ACI) was built, i.e., the difference between eye movements on cognitive target stimuli and sexual distractors. For the ACI of early attentional processes, i.e., fixation latency, a good classification between pedophiles and non-pedophiles was found. We assumed that the measured attentional control represents inhibitory executive functions, specifically interference control. Further studies should examine if low attentional control in pedophiles is due to low motivation to solve the task or rather to a lack of ability to control

Guidelines are presented for planning a food service operation which is defined as any place kept or maintained for the purpose of preparing or serving meals or lunches for a consideration. Brief discussions are presented pertaining to the value of planning and the preparation and use of plans and specifications. Recommendations and specifications…

The planning process is outlined which NASA used in making some fundamental post-Apollo decisions concerning the reuseable space shuttle and the orbiting laboratory. It is suggested that the basic elements and principles of the process, when combined, form a useful planning approach for solving urban problems. These elements and principles are defined along with the basic strengths of the planning model.

The planning process is outlined which NASA used in making some fundamental post-Apollo decisions concerning the reuseable space shuttle and the orbiting laboratory. It is suggested that the basic elements and principles of the process, when combined, form a useful planning approach for solving urban problems. These elements and principles are defined along with the basic strengths of the planning model.

China releases a new plan for the iron and steel industry centered on industrial upgrades The new 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) for China’s iron and steel industry, recently released on the website of the Ministry of Industry and Information

This test plan is a document that provides a systematic approach to the planned testing of rooftop structures to determine their actual load carrying capacity. This document identifies typical tests to be performed, the responsible parties for testing, the general feature of the tests, the testing approach, test deliverables, testing schedule, monitoring requirements, and environmental and safety compliance.

This book presents principles and methodology for planning in a complex world. It sets out a so-called systemic approach to planning, among other things, by applying “hard” and “soft” methodologies and methods in combination. The book is written for Ph.D and graduate students in engineering......, business and other fields, and it is useful for all professionals, across a wide range of employment areas, who share an interest in renewing planning practice. Such an endeavour is seen as both important and timely, recognising that many complex planning tasks necessitate organisations – be they public...... or private – to engage in planning to prepare proactive decision-making....

This book presents principles and methodology for planning in a complex world. It sets out a so-called systemic approach to planning, among other things, by applying “hard” and “soft” methodologies and methods in combination. The book is written for Ph.D and graduate students in engineering......, business and other fields, and it is useful for all professionals, across a wide range of employment areas, who share an interest in renewing planning practice. Such an endeavour is seen as both important and timely, recognising that many complex planning tasks necessitate organisations – be they public...... or private – to engage in planning to prepare proactive decision-making....

The Environmental Restoration Information Resources Management (ER IRM) Program Plandefines program requirements, organizational structures and responsibilities, and work breakdown structure and to establish an approved baseline against which overall progress of the program as well as the effectiveness of its management will be measured. This plan will guide ER IRM Program execution and define the program`s essential elements. This plan will be routinely updated to incorporate key decisions and programmatic changes and will serve as the project baseline document. Environmental Restoration Waste Management Program intersite procedures and work instructions will be developed to facilitate the implementation of this plan.

In the last decades a growing attention has been paid to the relationship between urban planning and public health. The introduction of the social model of health has stressed the importance of the determinants of health such as socioeconomic, cultural, and environmental conditions, in addition to living and working conditions. Starting from the assumption that urban planning plays a crucial role for enhancing healthy lifestyles and environments, the paper describes two different approaches to include health issues into land use plans and urban development projects. Two different evaluation tools, defined according to the Italian and French legal framework, have been compared in order to find out whether they could be considered as an innovative answer to the instance of creating a more effective cross field of work and training among urban planners and public health professionals.

The purpose of this article is to reexamine the 40 years of educational planning experience in Turkey comparatively with the educational planning experience in the international arena. Turkey has used educational planning since 1963. Planning in general has been defined as a decision-making process to reach certain goals in the future. This study…

Objective: To analyse the complications of planned relaparotomy for severe general peritonitis and to define when to discontinue relaparotomies. Design: Retrospective study. Setting: University hospital, The Netherlands. Subjects: 24 consecutive patients who underwent planned relaparotomy for widesp

Objective: To analyse the complications of planned relaparotomy for severe general peritonitis and to define when to discontinue relaparotomies. Design: Retrospective study. Setting: University hospital, The Netherlands. Subjects: 24 consecutive patients who underwent planned relaparotomy for widesp

The dissemination plan sets the reference for all planned dissemination activities during the project lifetime. It defines target groups, communication actions, how it will be performed, by whom and when.

Scenarios are important tools for long-term planning, and there is great interest in using integrated models in scenario studies. However, scenario definition and assessment are creative, as well as scientific, efforts. Using facilitated creative processes, we have worked with stakeholders to define regionally significant scenarios that encompass a broad range of hydroclimatic, socioeconomic, and institutional dimensions. The regional scenarios subsequently inform the definition of local scenarios that work with context-specific integrated models that, individually, can address only a subset of overall regional complexity. Based on concerns of stakeholders in the semi-arid US Southwest, we prioritized three dimensions that are especially important, yet highly uncertain, for long-term planning: hydroclimatic conditions (increased variability, persistent drought), development patterns (urban consolidation, distributed rural development), and the nature of public institutions (stressed, proactive). Linking across real-world decision contexts and integrated modeling efforts poses challenges of creatively connecting the conceptual models held by both the research and stakeholder communities.

Full Text Available In this article, we analyse the evolution and transformation of Danish spatial planning from its tentative origins in liberalist politics, through its rise as a central feature of the welfare state project, to its more recent entrepreneurial forms in a context of neoliberalisation. The article demonstrates how transformations of Danish spatial planning discourses and practices must be understood in context of previous discourses and practices sedimented as layers of meaning and materiality through time and over space. These layers do not completely overlay one another, but present a palimpsest saturated with contradictions as well as possibilities. We propose the notion of the ‘planning palimpsest’ as a helpful metaphor for drawing attention to the historical-geographical characteristics of planning discourses and practices.

Full Text Available The field of language planning (LP has largely ignored planned languages. Of classic descriptions of LP processes, only Tauli (preceded by Wüster suggests that planned languages (what Wüster calls Plansprache might bear on LP theory and practice. If LP aims "to modify the linguistic behaviour of some community for some reason," as Kaplan and Baldauf put it, creating a language de novo is little different. Language policy and planning are increasingly seen as more local and less official, and occasionally more international and cosmopolitan. Zamenhof's work on Esperanto provides extensive material, little studied, documenting the formation of the language and linking it particularly to issues of supranational LP. Defining LP decision-making, Kaplan & Baldauf begin with context and target population. Zamenhof's Esperanto came shortly before Ben-Yehuda's revived Hebrew. His target community was (mostly the world's educated elite; Ben-Yehuda's was worldwide Jewry. Both planners were driven not by linguistic interest but by sociopolitical ideology rooted in reaction to anti-Semitism and imbued with the idea of progress. Their territories had no boundaries, but were not imaginary. Function mattered as much as form (Haugen's terms, status as much as corpus. For Zamenhof, status planning involved emphasis on Esperanto's ownership by its community - a collective planning process embracing all speakers (cf. Hebrew. Corpus planning included a standardized European semantics, lexical selectivity based not simply on standardization but on representation, and the development of written, and literary, style. Esperanto was successful as linguistic system and community language, less as generally accepted lingua franca. Its terminology development and language cultivation offers a model for language revival, but Zamenhof's somewhat limited analysis of language economy left him unprepared to deal with language as power.

18-fluorodeoxygluocose positron emission tomography/computed tomography(18FDG-PET/CT) provides significant information in multiple settings in the management of head and neck cancers(HNC). This article seeks to define the additional benefit of PET/CT as related to radiation treatment planning for squamous cell carcinomas(SCCs) of the head and neck through a review of relevant literature. By helping further define both primary and nodal volumes, radiation treatment planning can be improved using PET/CT. Special attention is paid to the independent benefit of PET/CT in targeting mucosal primaries as well as in detecting nodal metastases. The utility of PET/CT is also explored for treatment planning in the setting of SCC of unknown primary as PET/CT may help define a mucosal target volume by guiding biopsies for examination under anesthesia thus changing the treatment paradigm and limiting the extent of therapy. Implications of the use of PET/CT for proper target delineation in patients with artifact from dental procedures are discussed and the impact of dental artifact on CT-based PET attenuation correction is assessed. Finally, comment is made upon the role of PET/CT in the high-risk post-operative setting, particularly in the context of radiation dose escalation. Real case examples are used in these settings to elucidate the practical benefits of PET/CT as related to radiation treatment planning in HNCs.

Working memory and planning are fundamental cognitive skills supporting fluid reasoning. We show that 2 games that train working memory and planning skills in school-aged children promote transfer to 2 different tasks: an attentional test and a fluid reasoning test. We also show long-term improvement of planning and memory capacities in…

Investigated whether planning opportunity results in increased focus on form at the level of strategic attention to form during planning time, as well as at the level of production outcomes during task performance. Results provide support for the claim that planning before doing a second language task can promote an increased focus on form.…

into the temporal domain. In the neural interpretation of TVA (NTVA; Bundesen, Habekost and Kyllingsbæk, 2005), processing resources are implemented as allocation of cortical cells to objects in the visual field. A feedback mechanism is then used to keep encoded objects in VSTM alive. The proposed model...... of attentional dwell time extends these mechanisms by proposing that the processing resources (cells) already engaged in a feedback loop (i.e. allocated to an object) are locked in VSTM and therefore cannot be allocated to other objects in the visual field before the encoded object has been released...

Full Text Available The objective of this study, stated as Previous Notation, is to demonstrate that Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Pathology presents a differentiated condition in carriers where a significant percentage, close to 60%, present a higher level of zinc elimination by kidneys. In this study, a direct relation of Zinc Mettalicum pathogenetic symptoms, this disturbance and the elimination of this element which participates in neurotransmission process were identified, and the relation with elements from regular diet, which can act as zinc chelating agents would be involved in the evolution of this disturbance, justifying the issue of individual susceptibility, essential in homeopathic investigation

Full Text Available Surface mines are generally open and very dynamic systems influenced by a large number of technical, economic, environmental and safety factors and limitations in all stages of the life cycle. In this paper the dynamic compliance period surface mining phases and of the reclamation. Also, an analysis of the reclamation of surface mines, and process flow management project recultivation is determined by the principled management model reclamation. The analysis of the planning process is defined by the model optimization recultivation surface mine.

Full Text Available The emerging Software-Defined Networks (SDN paradigm facilitates innovative applications and enables the seamless provisioning of resilient communications. Nevertheless, the installation of communication flows in SDN requires careful planning in order to avoid configuration errors and to fulfill communication requirements. In this paper we propose an approach that installs automatically and optimally static flows in SDN switches. The approach aims to select high capacity links and shortest path routing, and enforces communication link and switch capacity limitations. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and scalability of the developed methodology.

The GRIPS (Geothermal Resources Impact Projection Study) Commission was established by a Joint Powers Agreement between the California Counties of Lake, Mendocino, Napa, and Sonoma. The objectives of GRIPS are primarily to develop and use a cooperative environmental data collection and use system including natural, social, and economic considerations to facilitate their independent decisions and those of State and Federal agencies related to the environmental effects of geothermal development. This GRIPS Plan was prepared from a wide range of studies, workshops, and staff analyses. The plan is presented in four parts: summary and introduction; environmental data status report; planned programs; and budget. (MHR)

The aim of this bachelor’s thesis was to draw up an efficient marketing plan for Pohjolan Vihreä Polku Oy, which offers meeting and nature activity services. The company was in a process of conversion and needed a structured marketing plan. The objectives of the company were perceived through severe research. The main purposes of the marketing plan were to raise the visibility of the company and increase its clientele. The proposed marketing actions are also to be used to improve the company’...

Whether and how working memory disrupts or alters auditory selective attention is unclear. We compared simultaneous event-related potentials (ERP) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) responses associated with task-irrelevant sounds across high and low working memory load in a dichotic-listening paradigm. Participants performed n-back tasks (1-back, 2-back) in one ear (Attend ear) while ignoring task-irrelevant speech sounds in the other ear (Ignore ear). The effects of working memory load on selective attention were observed at 130-210ms, with higher load resulting in greater irrelevant syllable-related activation in localizer-defined regions in auditory cortex. The interaction between memory load and presence of irrelevant information revealed stronger activations primarily in frontal and parietal areas due to presence of irrelevant information in the higher memory load. Joint independent component analysis of ERP and fMRI data revealed that the ERP component in the N1 time-range is associated with activity in superior temporal gyrus and medial prefrontal cortex. These results demonstrate a dynamic relationship between working memory load and auditory selective attention, in agreement with the load model of attention and the idea of common neural resources for memory and attention.

The development of user-definable templates interfaces which allow the user to design new templates definitions in a user-friendly way is a new issue in the field of information extraction. The LOLITA user-definable templates interface allows the user to define new templates using sentences in natural language text with a few restrictions and formal elements. This approach is rather different from previous approaches to information extraction which require developers to code the template defi...

Planning problems in passenger railway range from long term strategic decision making to the detailed planning of operations.Operations research methods have played an increasing role in this planning process. However, recently more attention has been given to considerations of robustness...... in the quality of solutions to individual planning problems, and of operations in general. Robustness in general is the capacity for some system to absorb or resist changes. In the context of railway robustness it is often taken to be the capacity for operations to continue at some level when faced...... with a disruption such as delay or failure. This has resulted in more attention given to the inclusion of robustness measures and objectives in individual planning problems, and to the providing of tools to ensure operations continue under disrupted situations. In this paper we survey the literature on robustness...

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), formerly regarded as a typical childhood disorder, is now known as a developmental disorder persisting over the lifespan. Starting in preschool-age, symptoms vary depending on the age group affected. According to the variability of ADHD-symptoms and the heterogeneity of comorbid psychiatric disorders, a broad review of recent studies was performed. These findings were summarized in a developmental psychopathological model, documenting relevant facts on a timeline. Based on a genetic disposition and a neuropsychological deregulation, there is evidence for factors which persist across the lifespan, change age-dependently, or show validity in a specific developmental phase. Qualitative changes can be found for children in preschool-age and adults. These differences have implications for clinical practice as they can be used for prevention, diagnostic proceedings, and therapeutic intervention as well as for planning future studies. The present article is a translated and modified version of the German article "Entwicklungspsychopathologie der ADHS", published in Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie, Psychologie und Psychotherapie, 56, 2008, S. 265-274.

Full Text Available Abstract Background Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD, formerly regarded as a typical childhood disorder, is now known as a developmental disorder persisting over the lifespan. Starting in preschool-age, symptoms vary depending on the age group affected. Method According to the variability of ADHD-symptoms and the heterogeneity of comorbid psychiatric disorders, a broad review of recent studies was performed. These findings were summarized in a developmental psychopathological model, documenting relevant facts on a timeline. Results Based on a genetic disposition and a neuropsychological deregulation, there is evidence for factors which persist across the lifespan, change age-dependently, or show validity in a specific developmental phase. Qualitative changes can be found for children in preschool-age and adults. Conclusion These differences have implications for clinical practice as they can be used for prevention, diagnostic proceedings, and therapeutic intervention as well as for planning future studies. The present article is a translated and modified version of the German article "Entwicklungspsychopathologie der ADHS", published in Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie, Psychologie und Psychotherapie, 56, 2008, S. 265-274.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Coherent Logix, Incorporated (CLX) proposes the development of a Software Defined Common Processing System (SDCPS) that leverages the inherent advantages of an...

We continue investigating the structure of externally definable sets in NIP theories and preservation of NIP after expanding by new predicates. Most importantly: types over finite sets are uniformly definable; over a model, a family of non-forking instances of a formula (with parameters ranging over a type-definable set) can be covered with finitely many invariant types; we give some criteria for the boundedness of an expansion by a new predicate in a distal theory; naming an arbitrary small indiscernible sequence preserves NIP, while naming a large one doesn't; there are models of NIP theories over which all 1-types are definable, but not all n-types.

Full Text Available The path planning of free-floating space robot in space on-orbit service has been paid more and more attention. The problem is more complicated because of the interaction between the space robot and base. Therefore, it is necessary to minimize the base position and attitude disturbance to improve the path planning of free-floating space robot, reducing the fuel consumption for the position and attitude maintenance. In this paper, a reasonable path planning method to solve the problem is presented, which is feasible and relatively simple. First, the kinematic model of 6 degrees of freedom free-floating space robot is established. And then the joint angles are parameterized using the 7th order polynomial sine functions. The fitness function is defined according to the position and attitude of minimizing base disturbance and constraints of space robot. Furthermore, an improved chaotic particle swarm optimization (ICPSO is presented. The proposed algorithm is compared with the standard PSO and CPSO algorithm in the literature by the experimental simulation. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is more effective than the two other approaches, such as easy to find the optimal solution, and this method could provide a satisfactory path for the free-floating space robot.

Full Text Available The path planning of free-floating space robot in space on-orbit service has been paid more and more attention. The problem is more complicated because of the interaction between the space robot and base. Therefore, it is necessary to minimize the base position and attitude disturbance to improve the path planning of free-floating space robot, reducing the fuel consumption for the position and attitude maintenance. In this paper, a reasonable path planning method to solve the problem is presented, which is feasible and relatively simple. First, the kinematic model of 6 degrees of freedom free-floating space robot is established. And then the joint angles are parameterized using the 7th order polynomial sine functions. The fitness function is defined according to the position and attitude of minimizing base disturbance and constraints of space robot. Furthermore, an improved chaotic particle swarm optimization (ICPSO is presented. The proposed algorithm is compared with the standard PSO and CPSO algorithm in the literature by the experimental simulation. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is more effective than the two other approaches, such as easy to find the optimal solution, and this method could provide a satisfactory path for the free-floating space robot.

US Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior — The Union Slough National Wildlife Refuge Sign Plan explains how signs are used on the Refuge to help guide and educate visitors. An inventory of current signs is...

US Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior — This plan provides guidelines for administration of hunting activity and for development, maintenance, and enforcement of regulations and guidelines on Tamarac...

To decipher the "threads" of various forms and elements of content that show the pension plans, public or private, we appealed to the principle of accounting entity. The plans of defined contributions and the plans of defined benefits were investigated in terms of the following entities: the state, the employer, the reporting different entity by the employers of plan participants.

Current work in planning with preferences assume that the user's preference models are completely specified and aim to search for a single solution plan. In many real-world planning scenarios, however, the user probably cannot provide any information about her desired plans, or in some cases can only express partial preferences. In such situations, the planner has to present not only one but a set of plans to the user, with the hope that some of them are similar to the plan she prefers. We first propose the usage of different measures to capture quality of plan sets that are suitable for such scenarios: domain-independent distance measures defined based on plan elements (actions, states, causal links) if no knowledge of the user's preferences is given, and the Integrated Convex Preference measure in case the user's partial preference is provided. We then investigate various heuristic approaches to find set of plans according to these measures, and present empirical results demonstrating the promise of our app...

.... This work highlights the importance of scenario planning in hospitals, proposes an elaborated definition of the stakeholders of a hospital and defines the influence factors to which hospitals are exposed to. Methodology...

.... This work highlights the importance of scenario planning in hospitals, proposes an elaborated definition of the stakeholders of a hospital and defines the influence factors to which hospitals are exposed...

US Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior — The objectives of this Safety Management Plan are to identify and define safety hazards that may be encountered on Agassiz Refuge and the procedures to be followed...

Background: Whether selective attention is a primary deficit in childhood Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) remains in active debate. Methods: We used the "perceptual load" paradigm to examine both early and late selective attention in children with the Primarily Inattentive (ADHD-I) and Combined subtypes (ADHD-C) of ADHD. Results:…

There is limited knowledge on shared and syndrome-specific attentional profiles in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and Williams syndrome (WS). Using eye-tracking, we examined attentional profiles of 35 preschoolers with ASD, 22 preschoolers with WS and 20 typically developing children across social and non-social dimensions of attention. Children…

In this paper we will present a definability theorem for first order logic This theorem is very easy to state and its proof only uses elementary tools To explain the theorem let us first observe that if M is a model of a theory T in a language L then clearly any definable subset S M ie a subset S

A graphical language which can be used for defining dynamic picture and applying control actions to it is defined with an expanded attributed grammar.Based on this a system is built for developing the presentation of application data of user interface.This system provides user interface designers with a friendly and high efficient programming environment.

This study used elements of attention theory as a methodological basis to decompose a complex training task in order to improve training efficiency. The complex task was a microcomputer flight simulation where subjects were required to control the stability of their own helicopter while acquiring and engaging enemy helicopers in a threat enviroment. Subjects were divided into whole-task, part-task, and part/open loop adaptive task groups in a transfer of training paradigm. The effect of reducing mental workload at the early stages of learning was examined with respect to the degree that subordinate elements of the complex task could be automated through practice of consistent, learnable stimulus-response relationships. Results revealed trends suggesting the benefit of isolating consistently mapped sub-tasks for part-task training and the presence of a time-sharing skill over and above the skill required for the separate subtasks.

textabstractAnderson's (1983) theory about children's attention behavior during television viewing hypothesizes that attention behavior is affected by positive feedback (the inertia hypothesis) and the degree to which a child understands the television program. During an experiment, neither

This paper explores the role visual attention plays in the recognition of objects in infancy. Research and theory on the development of infant attention and recognition memory are reviewed in three major sections. The first section reviews some of the major findings and theory emerging from a rich tradition of behavioral research utilizing preferential looking tasks to examine visual attention and recognition memory in infancy. The second section examines research utilizing neural measures of attention and object recognition in infancy as well as research on brain-behavior relations in the early development of attention and recognition memory. The third section addresses potential areas of the brain involved in infant object recognition and visual attention. An integrated synthesis of some of the existing models of the development of visual attention is presented which may account for the observed changes in behavioral and neural measures of visual attention and object recognition that occur across infancy.

To overcome inherent limitations in perceptual bandwidth, many aspects of the visual world are represented as summary statistics (e.g., average size, orientation, or density of objects). Here, we investigated the relationship between summary (ensemble) statistics and visual attention. Recently, it was claimed that one ensemble statistic in particular, color diversity, can be perceived without focal attention. However, a broader debate exists over the attentional requirements of conscious perception, and it is possible that some form of attention is necessary for ensemble perception. To test this idea, we employed a modified inattentional blindness paradigm and found that multiple types of summary statistics (color and size) often go unnoticed without attention. In addition, we found attentional costs in dual-task situations, further implicating a role for attention in statistical perception. Overall, we conclude that while visual ensembles may be processed efficiently, some amount of attention is necessary for conscious perception of ensemble statistics.

textabstractAnderson's (1983) theory about children's attention behavior during television viewing hypothesizes that attention behavior is affected by positive feedback (the inertia hypothesis) and the degree to which a child understands the television program. During an experiment, neither componen

This study examined the role of attention in goal setting theory, using techniques adapted from selective attention research. Specifically, it explored activation and suppression of goal related information in the presence of two conflicting assigned goals. Pre vs. post goal completion and goal commitment were examined as moderators of these attentional effects. In addition, exploratory analyses looked at the impact of individual differences on attention (goal preference & action-state orient...

We examine whether attention deficits underlie developmental dyslexia, or certain types of dyslexia, by presenting double dissociations between the two. We took into account the existence of distinct types of dyslexia and of attention deficits, and focused on dyslexias that may be thought to have an attentional basis: letter position dyslexia (LPD), in which letters migrate within words, attentional dyslexia (AD), in which letters migrate between words, neglect dyslexia, in which letters on o...

Attentional control refers to the regulatory processes that ensure that our actions are in accordance with our goals. Dual-system accounts view temperament as consisting of both individual variation in emotionality (e.g. trait anxiety) and variation in regulatory attentional mechanisms that act to modulate emotionality. Increasing evidence links trait variation in attentional control to clinical mood and anxiety disorder symptoms, independent of trait emotionality. Attentional biases to threa...

Exogenous covert attention is an automatic, transient form of attention that can be triggered by sudden changes in the periphery. Here we test for the effects of attention on color perception. We used the methodology developed by Carrasco, Ling, and Read [Carrasco, M., Ling, S., & Read, S. (2004). Attention alters appearance. Nature Neuroscience, 7 (3) 308-313] to explore the effects of exogenous attention on appearance of saturation (Experiment 1) and of hue (Experiment 2). We also tested orientation discrimination performance for single stimuli defined by saturation or hue (Experiment 3). The results indicate that attention increases apparent saturation, but does not change apparent hue, notwithstanding the fact that it improves orientation discrimination for both saturation and hue stimuli.

Automatic attentional capture by a salient distractor can be prevented by spatial attentional control settings (ACSs) (e.g., Yantis and Jonides in J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 16:121-134, 1990). Earlier, converging evidence for a spatial ACS (Eason et al. 1969) was found in event-related potentials (ERPs). In these studies, the ACS was defined by a single target-relevant location. In an extension, Ishigami et al. (Vis Cogn 17:431-456, 2009) demonstrated a successful ACS in performance that was based on multiple (two) target-relevant locations. The purpose of the current study is to seek converging evidence from ERPs for a spatial ACS defined by multiple (two) target-relevant locations, using the methods in Ishigami et al. (Vis Cogn 17:431-456, 2009). Any one of four figure-8s brightened uninformatively (cue) before presentation of a digit target calling for a speeded identification (2 or 5). A spatial ACS was encouraged because in different blocks, the digit targets appeared only on the horizontal or vertical axis. Performance was more impaired following the invalid-attended cues than following invalid-unattended cues, consistent with Ishigami et al. (Vis Cogn 17:431-456, 2009) and verifying a successful spatial ACS. The direction of attention significantly affected the visual evoked potentials (VEPs) elicited by otherwise identical cues: the amplitudes of early VEPs were greater when the location the cue was presented in was target-relevant than when the location was target-irrelevant. These results re-affirm that attentional capture by irrelevant salient stimuli can be modulated by spatial ACSs defined by multiple target locations in performance and provide converging evidence from ERPs for the previously established behavioral findings.

This exploratory study investigated executive attention during nonverbal and verbal processing among adults with a range of bilingual experience. Previous research has found that bilingual children control their attention better than their monolingual peers and that superior attentional control in some processing contexts persists into adulthood…

Aims Previous studies have shown that abstinent heroin addicts exhibit an attentional bias to heroin-related stimuli. It has been suggested that attentional bias may represent a vulnerability to relapse into drug use. In the present study, the predictive value of pre-treatment attentional bias on re

The present study examined individual differences in everyday attention failures. Undergraduate students completed various cognitive ability measures in the laboratory and recorded everyday attention failures in a diary over the course of a week. The majority of attention failures were failures of distraction or mind wandering in educational…

Multisensory integration (MSI) and spatial attention are both mechanisms through which the processing of sensory information can be facilitated. Studies on the interaction between spatial attention and MSI have mainly focused on the interaction between endogenous spatial attention and MSI. Most of t

As language teachers, we have to pay attention to many things in our work so why add "attention to affect"? Perhaps the simplest, most direct answer is that whatever we focus most on in our particular context, be it general English, morphosyntax, phonetics, literature, English for academic writing or any other special area, attention to…

RATIONALE: Methylphenidate, the most common treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), is increasingly used by healthy individuals as a "smart drug" to enhance cognitive abilities like attention. A key feature of (selective) attention is the ability to ignore irrelevant but salien

The present study examined individual differences in everyday attention failures. Undergraduate students completed various cognitive ability measures in the laboratory and recorded everyday attention failures in a diary over the course of a week. The majority of attention failures were failures of distraction or mind wandering in educational…

In the present experiment, we used search asymmetry to test whether the sustained attention to response task is a better measure of response inhibition or sustained attention. Participants performed feature present and feature absent target detection tasks using either a sustained attention to response task (SART; high Go low No-Go) or a…

We examined whether the sustained attention to response task is a better measure of response inhibition or sustained attention. Participants performed a number detection task for 37.3 min using either a Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART; high Go low No-Go) or a more traditionally formatted vigilance task (TFT; high No-Go low Go) response…

Research suggests that visual selective attention develops across childhood. However, there is relatively little understanding of the neurological changes that accompany this development, particularly in the context of adult theories of selective attention, such as N. Lavie's (1995) perceptual load theory of attention. This study examined visual…

Yuzero Motora (1856-1912), regarded as the first professional Japanese psychologist, tried to address students' attention difficulties through attention training methods of his own design. His reports contain the first description of ADHD-like symptoms in the history of Japan. Motora viewed "distractibility" as the irregular transition of attention. Students with low scores and attention difficulties who participated in Motora's exercises showed improvement in arithmetic, psychological testing, and certain aspects of daily life. This article describes Motora's theoretical conception of attention and attention training methodology, the history of attention deficit and attention training, and the significance of Motora's experiments.

BACKGROUND: C. elegans has been established as a powerful genetic system. Use of a chemically defined medium (C. elegans Maintenance Medium (CeMM)) now allows standardization and systematic manipulation of the nutrients that animals receive. Liquid cultivation allows automated culturing and experimentation and should be of use in large-scale growth and screening of animals. RESULTS: We find that CeMM is versatile and culturing is simple. CeMM can be used in a solid or liquid state, it can be stored unused for at least a year, unattended actively growing cultures may be maintained longer than with standard techniques, and standard C. elegans protocols work well with animals grown in defined medium. We also find that there are caveats to using defined medium. Animals in defined medium grow more slowly than on standard medium, appear to display adaptation to the defined medium, and display altered growth rates as they change the composition of the defined medium. CONCLUSIONS: As was suggested with the introduction of C. elegans as a potential genetic system, use of defined medium with C. elegans should prove a powerful tool.

This document begins by defining and discussing educational planning. A brief overview of mathematical programing with an explanation of the general linear programing model is then provided. Some recent applications of mathematical programing techniques to educational planning problems are reviewed, and their implications for educational research…

Language planning for literacy has typically focused on models of provision of print-based literacy programmes in order to develop widespread literate capabilities in reading and writing. This paper argues that contemporary literacy planning needs to consider more than models of delivery and engage with issues related to defining the nature of…

This report is designed to give readers an introduction to the principles of human resource planning (HRP) and the areas in which it can be used, including those facing today's managers. Chapter 1 outlines why some organizations no longer plan, describes the background of change and uncertainty that discouraged them, and defines HRP. Chapter 2…

The average life duration of infrastructure being 30 years, preventive or corrective maintenance is not enough to guarantee the perpetuity of the operation of equipment and installation in order to assure the maintain of the patrimony in a functional state. At CERN, such is the age of the civil engineering infrastructure and the relative technical equipment that urgent and appropriate consolidation programs shall be established. The big number of aged buildings and equipment entails that priorities are defined. This paper realizes a portrait of the actual situation and related problems, based on data extracted from D7i and inventories carried out by TS/FM group; at the same time it defines an interventions planning which optimizes safety aspects and maintenance costs. The timing of these interventions depends on the availability of specific resources.

We investigate the application of nanoscale topgates on exfoliated bilayer graphene to define quantum dot devices. At temperatures below 500 mK, the conductance underneath the grounded gates is suppressed, which we attribute to nearest neighbour hopping and strain-induced piezoelectric fields. The gate-layout can thus be used to define resistive regions by tuning into the corresponding temperature range. We use this method to define a quantum dot structure in bilayer graphene showing Coulomb blockade oscillations consistent with the gate layout.

Agents in dynamic multi-agent environments must monitor their peers to execute individual and group plans. A key open question is how much monitoring of other agents' states is required to be effective: The Monitoring Selectivity Problem. We investigate this question in the context of detecting failures in teams of cooperating agents, via Socially-Attentive Monitoring, which focuses on monitoring for failures in the social relationships between the agents. We empirically and analytically explore a family of socially-attentive teamwork monitoring algorithms in two dynamic, complex, multi-agent domains, under varying conditions of task distribution and uncertainty. We show that a centralized scheme using a complex algorithm trades correctness for completeness and requires monitoring all teammates. In contrast, a simple distributed teamwork monitoring algorithm results in correct and complete detection of teamwork failures, despite relying on limited, uncertain knowledge, and monitoring only key agents in a team...

The evaluation of “Marketing planning” curriculum in higher vocational colleges should pay attention to planning ability of students which requires a set of scientific evaluation indicator system of marketing planning ability, however, there is less in-depth study in this field, especially the quantitative research. Scientific evaluation indicator system of marketing planning ability should divide the elements of marketing planning ability reasonably, and should give them reasonable weight. C...

Theme of this thesis is Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning. Main goal is design of Disaster Recovery plan for specific healthcare organization. One part of the design is analysis of analyzed hospital and identification of core applications and weak spots of the system. Within the analysis is risk assessment and assessment of its impact on the main applications. Based on this research the Disaster Recovery Plan is proposed. First part defines basic parts of Business Continuity ...

While the concept of entrepreneurship in the field of education has received growing scholarly attention in recent years, no consensual definition exists regarding what exactly educational entrepreneurship involves. A clear definition will promote research progress on this subject, as well as its accessibility in the general discourse. The present…

Full Text Available Objectives: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI is a reliable and non-invasive method with which to localize language function in pre-surgical planning. In clinical practice, visual stimulus presentation is often difficult or impossible, due to the patient’s restricted language or attention abilities. Therefore, our aim was to investigate modality-specific differences in visual and auditory stimulus presentation.Methods: Ten healthy subjects participated in an fMRI study comprising two experiments with visual and auditory stimulus presentation. In both experiments, two language paradigms (one for language comprehension and one for language production used in clinical practice were investigated. In addition to standard data analysis by the means of the general linear model (GLM, independent component analysis (ICA was performed to achieve more detailed information on language processing networks.Results: GLM analysis revealed modality-specific brain activation for both language paradigms for the contrast visual > auditory in the area of the intraparietal sulcus and the hippocampus, two areas related to attention and working memory. Using group ICA, a language network was detected for both paradigms independent of stimulus presentation modality. The investigation of language lateralization revealed no significant variations. Visually presented stimuli further activated an attention-shift network, which could not be identified for the auditory presented language.Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that the visually presented language stimuli additionally activate an attention-shift network. These findings will provide important information for pre-surgical planning in order to preserve reading abilities after brain surgery, significantly improving surgical outcomes. Our findings suggest that the presentation modality for language paradigms should be adapted on behalf of individual indication.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Intelligent Automation Inc, (IAI) is currently developing a software defined radio (SDR) platform that can adaptively switch between different modes of operation for...

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — IAI is actively developing Software Defined Radio platforms that can adaptively switch between different modes of operation by modifying both transmit waveforms and...

We define a new class of Convolutional Codes in terms of fibrations of algebraic varieties generalizaing our previous constructions of Convolutional Goppa Codes. Using this general construction we can give several examples of Maximum Distance Separable (MDS) Convolutional Codes.

In my experience, defining vocabularies compiled for English dictionaries for a British or .... Oxford 3000, which contains 3 540 entries, and is available on the Internet. ... One thing that became apparent was a lack of consistency within lexical.